Citing Textual Evidence Using MLA Format IN Natalie Babbitt’s tuck everlasting with Mrs. Baker, Media specialist

Citing a Book For printed sources (books, magazines etc.) with a single named author, the in-text citation would appear as follows: “Nothing ever seems interesting when it belongs to you— only when it doesn’t” (Babbitt 7). Note: There is a single space between the end quotation mark and the beginning parenthesis and between the name and page number. Note: The author’s last name and page number follow the textual reference.

General Guidelines: MLA In-text Citations If the author’s name is introduced in the sentence before the quotation, then it does not need to be included in the parenthesis. Example of the author’s name in the lead in: In the novel’s opening, author Natalie Babbitt describes the road leading to Treegap: “The road that led to Treegap . . . [w]andered along in curves and easy angles, swayed off and up in a pleasant tangent to the top of a small hill” (5). Example of the author’s name included in the parentheses: Winnie laments to the toad why she would prefer not to be an only child: “ ‘It’d be nice to have a new name, to start with, one that’s not all worn out from being called so much. And I might even decide to have a pet. Maybe a big old toad, like you, that I could keep in a nice cage with lots of grass, and . . .’ “ (Babbitt 15). Note: This is also an example of a quote within a quote.

Journal Prompt: Prologue Identify and explain the simile the author uses to demonstrate the temperatures of August in the prologue. “The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live- long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are the strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after” (Babbitt 3).

Journal Prompt: Prologue Identify and explain the simile the author uses to demonstrate the temperatures of August in the prologue. The simile used to convey the temperatures of August is: “August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning” (Babbit, 3). This is used to show that the monthly temperatures are like a circle. They slowly build up to the highest temperatures experienced in August and remain hot before beginning to slowly go down as we head into the fall and winter. This is just how the seat on the Ferris wheel slowly rises to the summit and holds there for a bit before returning to low temperatures that hang around in the winter for a longer period of time. The spring and fall temperatures are normally mild and vary throughout those seasons.

Practice 1: Chapter 1 Who is Winnie Foster, and what is her connection to the woods? Add at least one example of textual evidence to provide detail about Winnie. Example Response: Winnie is the only child of the Foster family who owns the woods of Treegap and who lives in the “touch-me-not cottage” within. Quite interestingly, Winnie does not venture through the family’s wood nor does she appear to be curious about it as “[n]othing ever seems interesting when it belongs to you—only when it doesn’t” (Babbit 7).

Practice 2: Chapter 2 About what is Mae Tuck excited? Add at least one example of textual evidence to provide support for your explanation. Example Response: Mae Tuck is obviously excited about seeing her boys because she awakens at dawn, “beaming at the cobwebs on the ceiling” and says to her husband, “The boys’ll be home tomorrow!” (Babbitt 9). Then she dresses and heads out to greet them while her husband slumbers on.