Our Only May Amelia

Based loosely on a diary of the author's grandmother, Our Only May Amelia is the story of a spunky pioneer girl who grew up on the Nasel River in Washington state at the turn of the last century. She is the only girl in a family of eight children. She runs wild, plays, and fights with the boys in a very unladylike way. They spend their days rowing up and down the Nasel River, sneaking into the Indian (Chinook) cemetery, sneaking into the logging camp, and running away from home. May also has to do many of the domestic chores such as cooking for all the boys in her family because her mother is expecting another baby and is incapacitated.

This family is no Ingalls family, however.

The dynamic is extremely dysfunctional, as siblings mistreat each other, the father rules them with an iron fist, and the grandmother, when she moves in, verbally abuses them all, especially May. May is even blamed for the crib death of her baby sister whose care she was in charge of as her mother slowly recovered!

I tried hard to like this book but despite the pioneer setting and the immigrant experience (the Holm family immigrated from Finland in the 1870s), I simply could not. The writing style is stilted and simplistic. It doesn't help that there are no quotation marks in the book.

I understand the the pioneering life was a hard one and tragic things happened but the events portrayed here are unbelievable and absolutely could not happen within the timeline of one year of a 12-year-old's life. Here's an example of things that happen to May in rapid succession:

p. 8    a fishhook is caught in May's dog's mouth

p. 32    May and her brother are shot at by a drunk neighbor

p. 56    May steps in a steel trap, badly injuring her leg

p. 127  a cougar attacks the children

 p. 136 May's oldest brother is reported as shanghaied (he has actually eloped with an  Irish girl but the family perpetuates this lie to placate Mr Jackson, who has forbidden the marriage because of his prejudice)                                           

 p. 139  a neighbor lady is murdered with an axe, 15-year-old helps to stitch her up for the funeral

p. 143 the family dog is attacked by a raccoon, requiring the care of an Indian herbalist

p. 150  May runs away to try to catch the murderer herself, a bear attacks her but she escapes up a tree

p. 170  a bear kills the family cow

p. 176 May's baby sister dies in her crib

p. 203 the Astoria ferry capsizes with all aboard presumed drowned

p. 219 May helps her Chinese friend to smuggle illegal Chinese workers into a cannery in Astoria

p. 225 scarlet fever ravages the valley, killing grandmother (whom no one mourns)

p. 245  May's brother scoops her out of the river just as she is about to be drowned by a log jam

I do like the practice of Random Capitalization, as Winnie-the-Pooh fans will understand, but it wasn't nearly enough to save this memoir. All in all, I am revoking the Newbery Honor status (I wish!)

Content considerations

Besides what is mentioned in the review, there is one use of g*ddamit, one use of d*mn; a girl is described as “chasing after Matti like a cat in heat;” an instance of Indians being called “savages;” May's aunt states that her “gentleman friend provides me with money;” several descriptions of the nearby woods being cursed by the Indians and full of spirits; a hex is mentioned; ghosts and hauntings are mentioned at least twice; in the past, a local man hanged himself from his porch rafters and the body is described as “swinging in the wind;” someone “screaming...as if their skin is being ripped off;” an Indian woman gives May a feather from the “Guardian Spirit” for good luck, a 12-year-old of friend of May crushes on a sailor who is “almost thirty.”