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Five years ago this week May B. was released into the world. In the days leading up to May’s launch, I fluctuated between moments of elation and fear. Finally, finally, after fourteen years of striving, something I’d written would exist as a book. And it was too late to take it all back.
I’d been told indirectly and directly not to expect much from May B. After all, it was literary fiction for kids. Who reads that? Add in the fact it was a historical novel, a genre readers weren’t exactly clamoring for, and it was written in this weird style called verse. Chain bookstores probably wouldn’t carry it. Most likely, May would have a very narrow audience.
Students in Indonesia marking out the dimensions of a soddy.
May started with the narrowest of audiences — my fifth-grade self. I write first for the girl I was back then, and somehow, in the mysterious way that writing works, the book has gone on to capture an audience wider than I ever could have imagined. Girls and boys not yet too old to have bought the lie that poetry is bad. Kids in the US and Japan. Schools in Nebraska and Kansas, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.
My Ss are jamming on books in verse after gobbling up everything by @kwamealexander! Got this for perseverance unit! pic.twitter.com/wxBZO7lVrq
— spartanlynne (@spartanlynne) April 15, 2016
Last year I met a middle-school girl who’d recently immigrated from Korea. She’d given her mom her copy of May B. to help her learn English. Last month I met a PTA mother who’d shared her book with her mother, too — an 85-year-old woman who is dyslexic but never identified as such.
No book, once it’s published, belongs to the author anymore. Neither does its protagonist. Something about May has struck a chord with more readers than I could have ever imagined. People from every age group and all walks of life have claimed her as their own.
When your name is the title of a book! #readingisfun @CheetahChamps @CStarrRose pic.twitter.com/RE8ojXDQA9
— Joyce Johnson (@Johnsoj93) December 15, 2016
I’m so grateful I got to be the one who brought May Betterly into the world. Thank you, May, for the joy you’ve given me and for sharing your brave spirit with readers everywhere.
Congratulations, Caroline! It’s more than I could have hoped for. You are a dream author and May B a dream book.– you both deserve every accolade!
Thank you, dear Nicole! YOUR fingerprints are all over this book. I loved the brief time we worked together. Thank you for getting behind May and working your magic.
I loved this post. Books are the only way I know how to time travel linking writer to reader. Congratulations!!!
Thank you, Vijaya. I’m in awe of the way a book becomes its own self apart from the author. Humbling and thrilling.
You are an inspiration to me! Five (or was it four) years ago, I read your post on Gae Polisner’s blog and started to transform an idea into verse. I’ve finished the second rewrite and I’m currently revising, but it’s finished. I’m not sure if it will have the life of May B, but I can hope because of you. Thanks!
Margaret, I don’t think I’ve heard all this before! I knew you were experimenting with verse, but I don’t remember you first finding me through Gae or realizing how far along you are with your own work. Congratulations to you! This is a huge accomplishment. I wish you and your story the very best.
Caroline, congratulations on the 5 yr anniversary of May B! I love the pictures of the students. Stories can unite and touch people in ways we don’t always expect. Thank you for sharing this with us. You’re an inspiration!
I love these pictures, too. Sometimes it’s easy to forget the individuals who will pick up your book one day or more often never know anything about them. As I’m sure you’ve experienced, it’s wonderful to get a glimpse of those readers and hear about their connection to your book.
What an impact May B has made! Congratulations, and I can’t wait to read your upcoming book and get to know Jasper!
Thank you, Jessica. Truly!!!
Congratulations, Caroline! And look at how much MORE you’ve accomplished in these five years– So inspiring!
Thank you, Cynthia. I haven’t thought about the last five years in those terms before you mentioned this. Thanks for the perspective!
Five years ! Congratulations!
Love this post. You are a testament to perseverance. Fourteen years of writing and you didn’t give up.
You’re my hero. As I revise (and revise) my own verse novel, I often think of you and MAY B.
Joanne, what an honor to hear this. Thank you, and as my agent says, ONWARD! I look forward to hearing about your book in the years ahead.