Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

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Happy Tenth Birthday, May B.!

5 Comments

Here’s to a book that’s still going strong.

A book…

  • 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.

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Filed Under: historical fiction, May B., the writing life

Comments

  1. Jessica Lawson says

    January 11, 2022 at 6:28 am

    Happy 10th, May B.!!!

    Reply
  2. Lynne Robbins says

    January 11, 2022 at 8:09 am

    Congratulations, and happy tenth birthday, May B!!

    Reply
  3. Lois Bradley says

    January 11, 2022 at 9:05 am

    My goodness! How can it possibly be ten years! Happy 10th birthday, May B!

    Reply
  4. Cynthia Grady says

    January 11, 2022 at 9:19 am

    So wonderful! Congratulations, Caroline.

    Reply
  5. Linda Mitchell says

    January 11, 2022 at 3:31 pm

    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.

    Reply

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