Reviews for Our only May Amelia

The average rating for Our only May Amelia based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-05-21 00:00:00 Tricia Babbitt So aside from the fact that both the general writing style and especially the frustrating and annoying lack of quotation marks found in Jennifer L. Holm's Our Only May Amelia continuously do manage to majorly grate on my academic and yes, perhaps even a bit grammatically anal and obsessive nerves (and that this lack is both distracting and at times rather confusing), the constant and heavy-duty historical anachronisms that seem to abound in Our Only May Amelia are even more of an issue, are proving to be even more infuriating and annoying. For yes indeed, while our modern sensibilities might well desire (and perhaps even on some level appreciate) May Amelia and her brothers supposedly being such very good friends with Chinook Indians, at the time and in the place (late 19th century America, and the West, Washington State at that), this would most probably NOT have happened, as from historical information (and with that I mean actual historically documented details), not only would May Amelia and her siblings not all that likely have been friends with Chinook Indians, they would probably have regarded them at best askance if not as potential enemies and vice versa. And with that salient truth in mind, while on an entirely personal and emotional level, I might indeed enjoy reading about May Amelia and Wilbert being good friends with and companions to Jane, from a realism point of view, from a historical perspective, I actually usually if not always much prefer historical fiction that has not been sanitised and/or sugar coated and that does not therefore paint a wrong or at least a misleading picture of the past (like for example Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie series, which although often and with reason faulted for being too negative and even majorly bigoted, stereotypical with regard to how American Indians are portrayed, at least shows the general and yes unfortunately accepted and condoned attitudes and practiced behaviours of the time and does not pretend them away or that the Ingalls family were somehow friends with and even accepting of Native Americans). And actually, due to the above mentioned as well as other historical anachronisms located, occurring throughout the narrative of Our Only May Amelia (like the superimposed and often annoyingly constant modern feminism, the striving of author Jennifer L. Holm to I guess be so-called politically correct), and even though I know and realise that the plot, that the story of Our Only May Amelia is historical fiction and takes place in 19th century America (as well as being supposedly even based on the author's own family history), there is really never all that much of a sense of actual and palpable historical time featured. For me, May Amelia's and her brothers' antics and behaviours, the lives of her family and neighbours, well they at times feel almost too modern and contemporary in scope, leaving the distinct and problematic, frustrating feeling that one is for all intents and purposes really reading a modern (a recent) novel that has somehow been artificially painted with a thin and cracking veneer of fake, of inauthentic historicism. Nevertheless and my annoyances with writing style and historical anachronisms notwithstanding, I would probably have considered Our Only May Amelia a trifle more realistic and even somewhat enjoyable (and as such a low three star and not the rather grudgingly given two star rating I am at present considering), if the main antagonist of the novel, if Grandmother Patience had been conceptualised and drawn as a more strongly developed and nuanced character and not simply a stock and wooden rendition of the typical fairy tale witch of folklore and legend. As while there in fact is a bit of an issue with insufficient character development throughout Our Only May Amelia, how the grandmother is portrayed, how she is basically simply a cardboard like cartoonish rendition of a harridan, a witch, a monster even, this does for me really do take the proverbial cake so to speak, lessening if not removing most of the potential reading pleasure I might have experienced and basically much if not even completely suspending my belief that Our Only May Amelia is in any way a realistic portrait of 19th century America (and also making me even rather strongly wonder and question why and how this novel earned Jennifer L. Holm one of the 2000 Newbery Honor Award designations). Pretty much a major disappointment, especially considering that I tend to love historical fiction for children (for young readers) and was therefore really looking forward to reading Our Only May Amelia with much anticipation (and I will therefore also not likely consider the sequel, as I seriously doubt it would be any more to my liking).

Review # 2 was written on 2012-10-06 00:00:00 Joshua Lovi My mom's been married a few times now, and I can honestly say that not much good has come out of the multiple stepfathers I've dealt with. There is one notable exception: my first stepfather, when I was maybe 8 years old, randomly decided to give my sister and I a present each. He put his hands behind his back and told us to each pick a side, and then presented us each with our own book. My sister got "Because of Winn Dixie" and I got this book. I remember being disappointed at first, because I had heard about "Because of Winn Dixie" and had never heard of this May Amelia character. Plus, the book wasn't pretty. Also, I had wanted to pick the other hand but the older sister got first call. Needless to say I didn't enter this book with any positive expectations. I guess it goes without saying that I loved it, if I remember it all these years later as a favorite, so much so that I still have it on my elusive 'favorites' shelf ten years later at age 18. The book is about a young girl who has grown up in a family of rambunctious brothers. She's unruly and rather wild, just goes about the riverside with her animal friends and her imagination to make a great day out of it. I remember the book felt rustic to me, that I was transported to this whole world that I, safely growing up in my upper-middle-class suburb, had no idea existed. And who knew that it could be so fun! I might have been too young by conventional standards to read this at age 8 or so, so I'm not suggesting this as the prime reading age for any of my friends' and followers' children. But my gosh, please don't forget about this book. In 2000 it didn't win the Newbery Medal but it did win Honors, and it deserved every bit of recognition it got.