May Bird and the Ever After, Book #1
Grade 5-7–May has grown up in an isolated home next to Briery Swamp. Her only real friend is her pet cat, Somber Kitty. When she digs through the rubble of a ruined post office, she finds a letter with her name on it. It tells her to travel through the woods to a lake. When she gets there, she accidentally falls into the water, which changes her life. After she returns home, she discovers that she can now see ghosts, and that they are all around her. May returns to the eerie spot in the middle of the night and is dragged down into the lake, which is actually a portal to the Ever After, where all dead people go as well as ghosts, specters, and other spirits. This alternative world is filled with vivid characters, including Pumpkin, the shy ghost who has watched over May since she was a child. The protagonist is sent on a quest to find a book that will tell her what her future is and whether she can get back home. The setting of the book is confusing. Even the early part set in the normal world is not cohesive, but it becomes even less convincing in the Ever After. Character motivation is also an issue, because May chooses to return to the lake and then fights through the entire book to escape what she has found. This is a secondary purchase compared to other vivid fantasy works like those created by Cornelia Funke.–Tasha Saecker, Caestecker Public Library, Green Lake, WICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.