
Here’s to a book that’s still going strong.
- agents told me was good, but they didn’t know what to do with it.
- an editor said “today’s plugged-in kids” wouldn’t understand.
- a middle-school girl who’d recently immigrated from Korea gave to her mom to help her learn English.
- a PTA mom shared with her mother, an 85-year-old woman who, like May, was dyslexic and (also like May) whose difference was never identified.
- that’s taken me all over the country and on virtual visits around the world.
Earlier this month, I got an email from author Annette Simon who used to be a bookseller at The BookMark in Neptune Beach, Florida. Years ago, she’d recommended May B. to a visiting teacher. The teacher loved it, bought copies for her class, and sent a photo to her local newspaper.
That picture happens to be one I’ve had on my website for years.

This Christmas, Annette gave a copy of May to her third-grade great niece, Rylee.
I once heard an author use the term “book of my heart” with disdain. (I think she was against the idea of getting too attached to a manuscript.) I’m happy to say the first book I published was a book of my heart,* a book that has grown far beyond my imagination or dreams and has been welcomed into classrooms and libraries and homes everywhere.
Happy birthday, May Betterly. I’m so grateful I got to write your story.
*Perhaps this expression feels corny or overly sentimental? That’s okay! I’m both those things.
Happy 10th, May B.!!!
Congratulations, and happy tenth birthday, May B!!
My goodness! How can it possibly be ten years! Happy 10th birthday, May B!
So wonderful! Congratulations, Caroline.
Hooray! May B. is EXACTLY the kind of book that appeals to this Teacher Librarian for personal reading. Thank you for the book of your heart.