May is 12 when her father takes her out of school—after all, she can’t seem to learn to read--and hires her out to the Oblingers, another farmer and his wife. The farmer’s wife is new to the prairie and she isn’t adjusting. May is supposed to ease that adjustment. May doesn’t want to go, but she has no choice. Not long after she arrives, Mrs. Oblinger deserts her husband and he leaves to find her. Neither come back.May is well trained in the ways of farm life and she’s resourceful and clever. When an early snowstorm strands her in the Oblinger’s soddie, she figures out how to survive with the food and fuel available to her. She also practices her reading and we learn about the brutal teacher who, as was common in her times, berated her for being dumb and lazy since dyslexia wasn’t known in those days. We don’t know what happens eventually, but a girl as determined at May might well realize her dream of becoming a teacher.Very interesting historical fiction written in free verse; short lines and easy language but evocative and compelling. 4th grade and up as a read alone but the adult in the child’s life should expect some questions about life in a sod house and living on a farm on the Kansas prairie in the late 1800’s. Set in the prairie when settlers were just beginning to make a home out of the harsh land we meet May B. She is a young girl living in a dirt hovel with her family in Oklahoma. Her father has hired her out to the next farm 15 miles away to help out with the chores for a man and his newly arrived wife. When the wife runs away and her husband follows May is thinks they return in a day or so, when the days turn to weeks and winter approaches the prairie she thinks maybe she should fear for her life. This story told in verse is easy to read and grabs your attention from the first poem. I must read for anyone who enjoys a great poem or a great story.
What do You think about May B. (2012)?
Clever approach and good story about our inner strength.
—jen
