Mailing May

Format:

Book

Title:

Mailing May

Author:

Tunnell, Michael O. author

ISBN:

9780688128784

9780688128791

9780064437240

9780613300162

9781413151718

9780329219888

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication:

New York : Greenwillow Books, [1997]

Physical Description:

1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations ; 24 x 29 cm

General Note:

"A Tambourine book."

Summary:

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 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 spunk, her father's ingenuity, and the U.S. mail.

Program Information:

Accelerated Reader AR LG 3.6 0.5 20671.

Reading Counts RC K-2 3.5 2 Quiz: 13187 Guided reading level: O.

AR Accelerated Reader Lower Grades 3.6 0.5 quiz: 20671 disk(s): AD122, AD250, AD597, J004, SL111, SL129, SL132, SL150, SL156, SL199.

Accelerated Reader Grades K-4 3.6 0.5 Quiz 20671 English fiction.

Subject(s):

Postal service -- Idaho -- Juvenile fiction.

Railroad stories.

Grandmothers -- Juvenile fiction.

Postal service -- Fiction.

Railroads -- Fiction.

Grandmothers -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Idaho

Genre:

Picture books for children.

Added Author:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Dallas Public Library	+ PRESCHOOL - TUNNELL	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	Paperback	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	TUNNELL	Searching... Unknown

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On Order

Summary

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 (5)

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

Horn Book Review

May's parents cannot afford a train ticket to send her to visit her grandmother, so her father and uncle Leonard devise a scheme to send her on the train as a parcel. In his author's note, Tunnell provides the historical origins of his story (May's journey occurs in 1914) and cites as one of his best sources the personal account left by the real uncle Leonard. Rand's broad watercolor scenes aptly convey a sense of the period. From HORN BOOK 1997, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Review

Based on a true story is this old-fashioned account from Tunnell (with George W. Chilcoat, The Children of Topaz, 1996, etc.), about five-year-old May's railroad journey via parcel post across the rugged Idaho mountains to visit her grandmother. Unable to purchase a first-class train ticket, May has 53 in stamps glued to the back of her coat and joins the packages and letters in the mail car. Even a cranky old conductor cannot deter May from making it to Grandma Mary's for lunch. A little-known detail in the history of the postal service inspired this 1914 period piece, and while children may wish for more suspense, the matter-of-fact telling is sure to bring quiet smiles as understanding dawns. Rand's illustrations of homey, wood-grained, braided-rug interiors and bundled-up wintry scenes bring warmth to the narrative; sepia-toned illustrations mimicking old photographs add to the notion of the book as part story, part historical record, while a photograph of the real Charlotte May Pierstorff appears on the jacket. (Picture book. 5-8)

Booklist Review

Ages 5^-8. Based on an incident that occurred in Idaho in 1914, this story tells of little May, who longs to visit her grandmother. May's parents cannot afford a railway ticket for the 75-mile trip, but with the help of cousin Leonard, who mans the mail car on the train, May's father takes advantage of the new parcel post regulations: he presents his daughter at the station post office as a package he's mailing to Lewiston. Affixing 53 cents in stamps to the back of her coat, the good-natured postmaster checks May in as poultry ("biggest baby chick on record"), and Leonard delivers her to Grandma's house the next day. Told in the first person from May's point of view, the story has a folksy quality and a ring of truth that will hold children's interest beyond the central anecdote. Rand's watercolor illustrations beautifully evoke the period and the feelings of the well-drawn characters. Particularly helpful in bringing the past to life are his essentially narrative style and the inclusion of small, sepia-toned paintings of photographs beside the large full-color paintings. --Carolyn Phelan