the most outstanding work of the greatest children's writer of our time
Natalie Babbitt has won several literary awards, including the Newbury Honor Award and the Library Association Book Award, and has also been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, called the Nobel Prize for Children's Literature.
「Treegap's Spring Water」 is a must-read in elementary and middle schools in the United States with rich imagination and beautiful sentences and is widely read as a modern classic. It was also made into a film twice in 1981 and 2002, and was performed as a Broadway musical in 2016.
After drinking mysterious spring water and gaining eternal life, the Turks wander around to stay as unnoticed as possible. When Winnie Foster, a 10-year-old girl, learns her secret by accident, the Turks take Winnie to their home to explain that living forever is not a bigger blessing than they thought. While having fun together, the Turks and Winnie become friends, but a man in a yellow suit sneaks up on them and is in danger of revealing the secret.
Forever life, is it a blessing? Is it a curse?
"Do you know what all this surrounding us is, Winnie?"
Turk asked Winnie in a low voice, and after a while he answered.
"It's life. It's moving, growing and changing, it's not the same for a moment.
The water in this lake that I see every morning looks the same,
Actually, it's not the same thing. This water is moving all night."
Tree Gap's Spring Water tells the story of a family who accidentally drank spring water from the forest and got an eternal life. The Turks have different attitudes toward accepting their fate. Seventeen-year-old Jessie says life is for enjoyment, and Jessie's brother says he wants to find a way to do something important one day. On the other hand, his father, Turk, says that life that remains in one place forever is not life, but a stone on the side of the road. On the other hand, the mother falcon accepts the fate given to her, whether she likes it or not, and shows an attitude to live silently every day in her own way. In addition, the man in the yellow suit uses this spring water to dream of making a fortune and threaten the Turks. Through Winnie, the protagonist who is at the crossroads of these various aspects and choices surrounding the spring of eternity, readers will think deeply about the issues of time, eternity, life, and death.
Jessie encourages Winnie to drink the spring water when she is the same age as him and to live happily together forever. What choice will Winnie make? Drink that spring water and get an eternal life like the Turks, or choose to grow up and age and die like other normal people? The author throws the reader with the agony of secrets and choices too great for a young girl to handle. This scary and beautiful modern classic, which cannot be put down while reading or forgotten, allows us to pause for a moment, regardless of age, to think and discuss the issues of time and eternity together.
editor's words
Everyone knows that there is no eternal life.
But humans are constantly creating fiction about immortality.
Why do humans dream of eternal life?
What does life and death mean to us, and how much weight does it carry?
I hope you have a reader who is looking for a clue with The Spring of the Tree Gap.
designer's words
If the original cover was a combination of white background and illustrations used in the text,
In this cover hardcover book, we focused on changing the atmosphere with simple illustrations.
Through the contrast between the color of the tree and the black background, the mystery of spring water and the ambivalence of eternal life.
I wanted to express the message visually.
The important medium of this book, spring water, was highlighted through holographic post-processing.
Trees of different shapes and sizes are intended to feel like different aspects of their lives.
Is the eternity of spring water a blessing or a curse? Should I drink that spring water?