Rose, C.S. 2012. MAY B. : A NOVEL. New York: Schwartz &
Wade Books. ISBN 9781582463933 (hardcover).
Rose’s novel
in verse is a beautiful book set in the rural prairies of 19th-century Kansas.
It is an interesting novel in that the book features only one point of view,
that of twelve-year-old Mavis Elizabeth Betterly, otherwise known as May B. She is sent by her parents to help out a newly married couple who live fifteen miles from May's family.
From the beginning of the novel we see May's strong determination- she is insistent on not going to live with strangers, but the choice is ultimately made by her father, who promises the separation will be only till Christmas. May soon finds herself alone in the newlyweds' soddy, the new bride having run away and the groom set out to find her.
Rose’s verse
style features a variety of poetic elements. Some great examples of this
include beautiful sensory imagery which makes the reader feel as if they are on
the Kansas prairie with May B. In a beautiful stanza describing the area near
their home, May says:
I play a game inside my head,
counting
plum trees that dot a creek bed,
rabbits
that scatter at the sound of wagon
wheels,
clouds
that skirt the sky.
For
hours, that is all,
and
grass,
always
grass,
in
different shade sand textures like the braids in a rag rug.
(Rose,
18)
Throughout the novel, the
grass, the hills, the river, the woods and the sky are presented realistically through Rose’s verse that the reader is captivated by the wide, open
space of the Kansas prairie. Through sharing May's struggle with reading (she most likely
has dyslexia), Rose's verses have great emotional impact as the reader begins to understand May’s doubts about her ability to read aloud. She longs to
overcome her struggle with reading to become a school teacher. May's determination to become a fluent reader will inspire any young readers struggling with dyslexia.
Rose’s verse style will be appealing to
both young and adult readers alike. She intricately weaves sensory details of
the Kansas landscape with the thoughts and feelings May experiences throughout
her time living alone, separated from her family. May’s quite sense of humor
and sarcasm about Mrs. Oblinger and some of her schoolmates keeps the mood of
the verse throughout the novel light when it otherwise would have been disparaging.
The verse is full of seemingly everyday details which show the immensity of
physical work it took just to survive on the prairie.
The layout of this verse novel is set in
two parts. What may be slightly confusing to some readers is the numbering of
pages or entries. It appears that the numbering at the top of each page is for
each entry, sort of like a chapter number, but it also may be that this
numbering represents the amount of days which transpire, since May lives alone
for several months. The numbers at the bottom of the page are the traditional
page numbers.
Some of my
favorite verses come from the time when May finds herself alone at the
Oblingers’ soddy, with no idea of what the future holds.
I
push open the door
and
run,
and
run,
and
run,
and
run,
until
the soddy’s a tiny speck.
And
around me,
the
grass reaches in every direction.
There
is nothing here to mark my place,
nothing
to show me where I am.
No
trees.
No
stones.
No
wagon ruts this way.
Just
emptiness.
This
isn’t home,
where
I know the land.
(Rose, 73)
This beautiful verse embodies the
hopelessness threatening to engulf May. As she has never lived away from her
family before, she is completely unsure of where she is, and has no idea how to
return to her parents’ home. A great activity to introduce this novel to middle-grade
readers (most likely 4th-6th graders) would be to present some historical
photographs of rural 19th-century Kansas as it is depicted in the novel. Personally,
I did not know exactly what a ‘soddy’ was before reading the novel. If young readers are able to view photographs of Kansas from the time period that the novel is
set in, they will be able to create more accurate mental images of what
Rose describes with such beautiful detail.
May B. book cover. JPEG. Retrieved from http://www.randomhouse.com/book/208455/may-b-by-caroline-rose
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