Mailing May

Select an Action

Mailing May

Title:

Mailing May

Author:

Tunnell, Michael O, author.

Rand, Ted, illustrator.

Summary:

In 1914, because her family cannot afford a train ticket to her grandmother's town, May gets mailed and rides the mail car on the train to see her grandmother.

General Note:

"A Tambourine book."

Edition:

1st ed.

Physical Description:

1 v. (unpaged) : col. ill. ; 24 x 29 cm.

Genre:

Picture books.

Subject Term:

Postal service -- Juvenile fiction.

Railroads -- Juvenile fiction.

Grandmothers -- Juvenile fiction

Author(s):

Rand, Ted,

Publisher:

Greenwillow Books,

Publication Date:

1997

ISBN:

9780688128784

9780688128791

Publication Information:

New York : Greenwillow Books, c1997.

Call Number:

P TUNNELL

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607002533134	Picture Books	TUNNELL	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Nowadays it's no big deal or a girl to travel seventy-five miles. But when Charlotte May Pierstorff wanted to cross seventy-five miles of Idaho mountains to see her grandma in 1914, it was a very big deal indeed. There was no highway except the railroad, and a train ticket would have cost her parents a full day's pay.

Here is the true story of how May got to visit her grandma, thanks to her won spunk, her father's ingenuity, and the U.S. mail.Nowadays it's no big deal for a girl to travel seventy-five miles. But when Charlotte May Pierstorff wanted to cross seventy-five miles of Idaho mountains to see her grandma in 1914, it was a very big deal indeed. There was no highway, and a train ticket would have cost her parents a full day's pay. Here is the true story of how May got to visit her grandma, thanks to her own spunk, her father's ingenuity, and the U.S. mail.A Greenwillow/Tambourine Book

00-01 CA Young Reader Medal Masterlist, 2000-2001 Georgia's Picture Storybook Award & Georgia's Children's Book Award Masterlist, and 01 Colorado Children's Book Award (Pic. Bk Cat.)

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

K-Gr 2Five-year-old Charlotte May Pierstorff begs to visit her grandmother, but her parents cannot afford to send her. In Idaho in 1914, the train is the only way to make the 75-mile trip over the mountains. The Pierstorffs come up with an unusual solutionmailing May. Sending her as a package is a third of the cost, and since her mother's cousin Leonard handles the railroad mail car, she does not have to travel alone. Children will delight in the fantasy aspects of the tale even after they discover that the story is true. Tunnell describes his research in an author's note. Rand's watercolor illustrations are masterful, as is the design of the book as a whole. The intriguing cover is made to look like a suitcase. With the tweed of the traveling bag as a backdrop, the title is framed in the shape of a postage stamp, and two other old-fashioned stamps and a "photograph" of May holding the same suitcase are featured. The device of the painted photographs or other pieces of realia such as a postal tag or train schedule appear throughout the book's glowing two-page spreads and add to the story's authenticity. This well-crafted presentation provides a brief, but sweet, glimpse into the past.Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Necessity, as always the mother of invention, inspired this true story culled from U.S. postal lore. May's parents promise her a visit to her grandmother, but when a train ticket through the Idaho mountains is too expensive, her father comes up with a unique solution: he mails her by parcel post instead. Postal regulations in 1914 prohibit the shipment of "lizards or insects or anything smelly," but say nothing about girls, and so the congenial postmaster duly classifies May as a baby chick, glues fifty-three cents worth of stamps and a delivery tag onto her coat and sends her on her way, under the protective wing of her mother's cousin Leonard (who, not coincidentally, happens to man the train's mail car). Tunnell (The Children of Topaz) recounts this quirky slice of Americana with color and flair (a steam engine is described as "hissing and snorting like a boar hog"). Rand's (Fair!, reviewed below) expressive, slightly sentimental watercolors do justice to the period setting. Brimming with detail, from the clothing styles to the tin ceiling in the general store and the pigeon-holed interior of the railway mail car, they incorporate a scattering of renderings of stamps and sepia-toned photographs as well, adding texture to the fictionalized account. Ages 4-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Reviews (2)

School Library Journal Review

Publisher's Weekly Review