Our Only May Amelia
It's not easy being a
pioneer in 1899-- especially when you're not just the only girl in your
family; you are the only girl ever born to the entire
settlement. May Amelia Jackson has seven older brothers and she's no "Proper
Young Lady", everyone seems to want her to be one. She likes
adventures, wearing overalls and climbing trees, going fishing, and
proving that she can do anything her big brothers can do.
This title is great for supplementing Frontier units, as it is packed with small details about rural life along the Nasel River (where May Amelia's family lives) as well as details about life in a bustling frontier city (nearby Astoria) at the turn of the century.
May Amelia is a plucky little heroine, impossible not to like and readers will get drawn into her story from quite early on in the book. Publishers Weekly said that this Newbery Award winning book "is not to be missed." We agree!
Interest
Level: Grade 4+
Grade Level Equivalent: 6.5
Guided Reading Level: R
DRA Level: 40
Lexile Measure: 900L
Create an
issue of "The
Astoria Gazette"
Have
students create a newspaper issue about events in Our Only May Amelia. Tell them
not to worry about the timing of events. They can report on
anything that happened in the book in their issue, even if the events
happened far apart in time. Provide
specifics on what the student should include in their newspaper. For
example, you could require the
following:
If you want to provide a newspaper template to your students, you can find them online. Just Google "newspaper format for kids" or direct them to do so. :)
Mapping
the Book
On a large poster board, have the student re-draw the map at the
beginning of Our Only May Amelia, then add at least 20 events from the
story onto their map. Inform them that a person can be shown in more
than one place at a time, and that if the location is vague (ie: "in
the river"), they should just depict the activity somewhere that is
logical.
At right is one half of the map, shown for your reference. Sorry we
can't show all of it...they only have half the map scanned into
Amazon.com. But, we figured we'd show you this part just so you get an
idea of what the interior map looks like. :)
Note: If you are going to have students do this project, you should
encourage them to stop at the end of every chapter and think of any
momentous things that they can add to their map. If they wait until
they are done
with the book, it may be hard for them to remember that many events.
This book was an honoree for the prestigious Newbery Award for best children's literature. Click to see the full list of Newbery Award Winners.
Or check out other books by this author Jennifer Holm. Her books are always quite popular with kids!