Our+Only+May+Amelia

**Our Only May Amelia**

 * Jennifer L. Holm**



**Summary/Review**
Tired of being the only girl around, on her twelfth birthday May Amelia wishes the baby her mother is carrying will be a sister. She continues to help her brothers with the farm work by haying, tending the sheep, milking the cows, and mucking out the barn. She also helps her mother with the cooking and cleaning. But May Amelia takes every opportunity she can to go on adventures with her brothers. They go fishing, watch a Chinook burial ceremony, and visit their aunt and uncle in town. Sometimes adventures come to them while they are working, like the time when they are on their way to pick cranberries and encounter a cougar. Sometimes the adventures come when May Amelia is doing something she should not, like the time she sets out alone in search of a murderer and is treed by a bear. May Amelia’s birthday wish comes true when her sister Amy Alice is born. Then tragedy strikes, and May Amelia embarks on a journey that will forever change how she feels about herself and her family, and what it means to be their only May Amelia. (1)

**Author Bio** Jennifer Holm was raised in Audubon, Pennsylvania with her four brothers. After graduating from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, she worked in television and later began to write. //Our Only May Amelia,// the story of a 12-year-old girl living in the late 19th century, inspired by a diary written by her great aunt, was her first published novel and was a 2000 Newbery Honor Book. Holm also has written a series starring Jane Peck, a young woman living in the 1850s (//Boston Jane: An Adventure//, //Boston Jane: Wilderness Days// and //Boston Jane: The Claim//); //The Creek,// a horror thriller; a series of graphic novels for young adults illustrated by her brother Matthew (//Babymouse: Queen of the World//, //Babymouse: Our Hero//,//Babymouse: Beach Babe//, //Babymouse: Rock Star//, //Babymouse: Heartbreaker//, and //Camp Babymouse//); and //The Stink Files//, a series co-written with her husband Jonathan Hamel starring James Edward Bristlefur, a cat raised by a British secret agent who is adopted by an American family and renamed Mr. Stink after his owner is murdered.//Penny from Heaven,// a story set in the 1950s starring an 11-year-old Italian-American girl, was a 2007 Newbery Honor recipient. //Turtle in Paradise,// which is set in the Great Depression in Key West, Florida, was a 2011 Newbery Honor recipient. (2)

**Other Works**
//Our Only May Amelia// //(1999) ;// //The Creek// //(2003) ;// //Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff// //(2007) ;// //Penny from Heaven// //(2007) ;// //Turtle in Paradise// //(2010)// __Boston Jane novel series:__ //An Adventure// //(2001) ;// //Wilderness Days// //(2002) ;// //The Claim// //(2004)// __Babymouse Series:__ //Queen of the World// //(2005) ;// //Our Hero// //(2005) ;// //Beach Babe// //(2006) ;// //Rock Star// //(2006) ;// //Heartbreaker// //(2006) ;// //Camp Babymouse// //(2007) ;// //Skater Girl// //(2007) ;// //Puppy Love// //(2007) ;////Monster Mash// //(2008) ;// //The Musical// //(2009) ;// //Dragonslayer// //(2009) ;// //Burns Rubber// //(2010) ;// //Cupcake Tycoon////(2010) ;// //Mad Scientist// //(2011) ;// //A Very Babymouse Christmas// //(2011)// __The Stink Files series:__ //The Postman Always Brings Mice// //(2004) (with Jonathan Hamel) ;// //To Scratch a Thief// //(2004) (with Jonathan Hamel) ;// //You Only Have Nine Lives// //(2005) (with Jonathan Hamel)// (3)

**Awards** 2000 Newbery Honor Book Publishers Weekly "Flying Starts" Author ALA Notable Children's Book Parents' Choice Silver Honor Publishers Weekly Best Book Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies (NCSS/CBC) Utah Book Award (Gr. 3-6) Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Bk Award Masterlist

**Historical Content** Homesteading, Finnish customs, Chinook customs, gender issues

**Major Themes**
Independence, family matters/values

**Citations**
1. http://www.jenniferholm.com/pdf/teacherguide_mayamelia.pdf 2. http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/2015/jennifer-holm 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_L._Holm