5. May B. a Novel - Caroline Starr Rose

a novel told in verse
2012, Schwartz & Wade Books, Random House
233 pgs.
Written for middle grades
Liked it
Historical Fiction
Lots of starred reviews **


Setting:  Late 19th century Kansas prairie.
OSS:  May B. is "lent" by her family to help out a new farmer and his young wife in their sod house...an unhappy proposition made even worse when she is abandoned with no way to leave the homestead.
1st sentence/s: 

I won't go.

"It's for the best," Ma says,
yanking to braid my hair,
trying to make something of what's left.

Ma and Pa want me to leave
and live with strangers.

I won't go.

Loneliness, blizzards, wolves and dyslexia make this a looooong 6 months for May B.