Book Review: OUR ONLY MAY AMELIA by Jennifer L. Holm

1.      BIBLIOGRAPHY

Holm, Jennifer L. Our Only May Amelia. New York: HarperTrophy, 2000. ISBN: 0064408566

2.  PLOT SUMMARY

What would it be like to grow up in the backwoods of Washington State when you were the only girl in a family of eight children? May Amelia could tell you. She’s the only girl that’s ever been born on the Nasal River, where her family lives. For that matter, she’s the only girl who’s ever been born in the whole area! It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, to find that May Amelia doesn’t always act like a lady. She likes to climb trees. She likes to row the boat up and down the river. She likes to fish. She DOESN’T like cooking dinner and doing the housework, though. Her father despairs of her ever growing into a proper young lady, but then her little sister is born. May Amelia loves her baby sister, and since her mother is ailing after childbirth, it falls to May Amelia to care for Baby Amy. Everyone is a little surprised (even May Amelia) at how well she does, and how much she enjoys, taking care of Amy. Baby Amy is happy and chubby and thriving. But one morning Baby Amy won’t wake up. Is it May Amelia’s fault? How will she cope with death of her Baby Amy?

3.      CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Our Only May Amelia is one of those books that is gut-wrenching in parts, tear-jerking in others, but ultimately heart-warming. It is definitely a coming-of-age story, but not just for May Amelia. Many of the characters a reader would expect to be flat turn out to be more dynamic than is typical in a single book. May’s father learns to standup to his domineering mother. Her cousin learns what family means. Her brother figures out responsibility. But of course the greatest change is in May Amelia. She learns about love, and pain, and hurt, and hate, and forgiveness. She learns to cope. She learns to grow. She learns to accept. Holm has woven the fun-loving tomboy theme into a beautiful story that is hard to put down.

For older readers, May Amelia is somewhat redolent of Caddie Woodlawn, another tomboy-of-a-daughter in colonial times. May Amelia, however, has more depth to her character, perhaps because she is older and thus dealing with different issues. Caddie averts a tragic slaughter of her friends, the Indians, but May Amelia averts the tragedy of a torn home and broken family. Caddie learns almost overnight that part of growing up includes learning to behave as a young woman. May Amelia takes many months of pain and anger before she can face growing up. All of these factors create a memorable book for readers of diverse backgrounds.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

AWARDS: Newberry Honor Book, 2000

BOOKLIST: May Amelia, age 12, lives with her stern Finnish father, pregnant mother, and seven brothers in the state of Washington in the late 1800s. She records the details of her life in a diary using the present tense and a folksy speech pattern: "I go about fixing dinner real quiet-like so they can talk and tell secrets." Aside from quarrels with her adoptive brother Kaarlo, May lives a relatively bucolic life until the arrival of her shrewish grandmother, who finds fault with everything May says and does. The author bases her story on her aunt's real diary, so the everyday details of life among Finnish immigrants add a nice specificity to the background, and May is appealingly vivacious. However, the lack of quotation marks, the overuse of certain expressions (among them, "indeed"), the length, and sometimes slow pacing may make this a secondary purchase. Susan Dove Lempke

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: Twelve-year-old tomboy May Amelia Jackson, the youngest of seven children and the only girl in a Finnish immigrant family, lives in the wilderness along the Nasel River: "I have so many brothers, more than any girl should have. My secret birthday wish is to get a sister." Holm's uncanny ability to give each of the siblings­, and a wide range of adults, a distinctive character while maintaining May Amelia's spunky narrative voice, gives the novel its immediacy and potency... The sometimes gruesome realities of the Jacksons' lives are tempered by May's strength of character and her bond to her favorite brother, Wilbert. Readers will fall in love with May Amelia's spirited nature; when she saves her brothers from a cougar, she tells them, "I reckon it's a Darn Good Thing I'm not a Proper Young Lady or you'd be a cougar's supper right about now." This novel is not to be missed.

5. CONNECTIONS

* Our Only May Amelia would make a great addition to a unit of study about early settlers in America. May Amelia lives on a river. How does that affect her life as a settler? How is it different from settlers living on farms? In heavily wooded areas? What are reasons why settlers chose the areas they chose to build their lives? How did that affect them and their families?

*Other books that depict early settlers in the United States include the following:

Alvarez, Julia. Return to Sender. New York: Yearling, 2010. ISBN: 0375851232.

Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie Woodlawn. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 2006. ISBN: 1416940286.

Speare, Elizabeth George. The Sign of the Beaver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983.  ISBN: 0395338905.

Speare, Elizabeth George. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958. ISBN: 0395071143.