The Search for Delicious
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The Search for Delicious
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See moreIn this classic novel by a Newbery Honor author, the Prime Minister is compiling a dictionary, and when no one at court can agree on the meaning of delicious, the King sends his 12-year-old messenger Gaylen to poll the country. Illustrations.
Natalie Babbitt's memorable first novel, The Search for Delicious, about a boy who nearly causes a civil war in the kingdom all because of his work on the royal dictionary.
Gaylen, the King's messenger, a skinny boy of twelve, is off to poll the kingdom, travelling from town to farmstead to town on his horse, Marrow. At first, it is merely a question of disagreement at the royal castle over which food should stand for Delicious in the new dictionary. But soon it seems that the search for Delicious had better succeed if civil war is to be avoided.
Gaylen's quest leads him to the woldweller, a wise, 900-year-old creature who lives alone at the precise centre of the forest; to Canto, the minstrel who sings him an old song about a mermaid child and who gives him a peculiar good-luck charm; to the underground domain of the dwarfs; and finally to Ardis who might save the kingdom from havoc.
The Search for Delicious is a 1969 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year.
Featured in 4 episodes as part of the Jackanory BBC children's television series.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780312369828
Publisher: Square Fish
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 21 August 2007
Country: United States
Imprint: Square Fish
Illustration: Illustrations
Contributors:
- Illustrated by Natalie Babbitt
Audience: Children
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 13.0mm
Width: 137.0mm
Height: 193.0mm
Weight: 159g
Pages: 192
About the Author
Artist and writer Natalie Babbitt (1932-2016) is the award-winning author of the modern classic Tuck Everlasting and many other brilliantly original books for young people. As the mother of three small children, she began her career in 1966 by illustrating The Forty-Ninth Magician, written by her husband, Samuel Babbitt. She soon tried her own hand at writing, publishing two picture books in verse. Her first novel, TheSearch for Delicious, was published in 1969 and established her reputation for creating magical tales with profound meaning. Kneeknock Rise earned Babbitt a Newbery Honor in 1971, and she went on to write--and often illustrate--many more picture books, story collections, and novels. She also illustrated the five volumes in the Small Poems series by Valerie Worth. In 2002, Tuck Everlasting was adapted into a major motion picture, and in 2016 a musical version premiered on Broadway. Born and raised in Ohio, Natalie Babbitt lived her adult life in the Northeast.
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