May B. – Caroline Starr Rose

Hardcover
Expected publication: January 10th 2012 by Schwartz and Wade (Random House Children’s Books)
Source: Net-Galley

Synopsis:
Mavis Elizabeth Betterly, or May B. as she is known, is helping out on a neighbor’s Kansas prairie homestead, “Just until Christmas,” says her Pa. Twelve-year-old May wants to contribute, but it’s hard to be separated from her family by fifteen long, unfamiliar miles.

Then the unthinkable happens: May is abandoned to the oncoming winter, trapped all alone in a tiny snow-covered sod house without any way to let her family know and no neighbors to turn to. In her solitude, she wavers between relishing her freedom and succumbing to utter despair, while trying to survive in the harshest conditions. Her physical struggle to first withstand and then to escape her prison is matched by tormenting memories of her failures at school. Only a very strong girl will be able to stand up to both and emerge alive and well.

In this debut novel written in gripping verse, Caroline Starr Rose has given readers a new heroine to root for, one who never, ever gives up.

Review:

I love stories in verse therefore I wasn’t much surprised when I ended up enjoying May B. a whole lot more than I had expected to. There’s this cleanliness about the poetry that makes it easy to read. The thing with writing a story in verse is that you have to be very careful about the details you put and the ones you leave out. Because of the structure, you cannot, as you would in prose form novels, describe things to the minute detail. I felt that May B. very successfully portrayed Mavis and the situation she found herself in while still managing to make her a character that one could empathize with. And relate to. Mavis’s desire to read and to eventually teach are particularly poignant especially when the modern reader realizes that the possibility of it occurring is little to one.

I also really liked how the changing climate is given consideration and Mavis’s feelings as she realizes that she has been abandoned. All in all, this is a beautiful novel with beautiful, eloquent poetry. If you want a glimpse of a girl defying all odds to survive, you should give May B. a try. I recommend it anyway.