May Amelia Jackson is the youngest and only daughter born to a Finnish American family with eight children living on a farm near a logging camp in Washington state at the end of the 19th Century. At age 12, May is spirited, spunky and downright sassy at times. She enjoys dressing and talking like her older brothers and wants to be a pirate when she grows up. She has absolutely no interest in being the “proper little lady” her Pappa would like her to be. Aside from May’s engaging character, what makes his novel especially outstanding is the detailed description of everyday rural family life 100 years ago and the novel’s distinctive voice: funny, colloquial and pure May Amelia, it reads almost like an oral history. (Age 12 and older)