Happy Tenth Birthday, May B.!

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.