May Bird and the Ever After by Jodi Lynn Anderson

This book is one of a three part series. I only bought the first book to see if the series was good enough to finish. It's not fair when a story is cut short by the end of a book. :) Now, I have to go buy the books to finish the story. And after reading this book, it is going to be worth it.


May Ellen Bird is not a typical girl. She has a hard time making friends and therefore does not get along well with others. She is an individual in the way she acts, thinks and dresses. Her best friend is her hairless cat, Somber Kitty. She lives in a town that is abandoned besides her and her mom living in a mansion. Her bedroom is covered in pictures she drew at a younger age. They are of crazy, fictional creations of her imagination.


May is threatened with boarding school in New York City. She explores the ruins of the town and finds a letter that she has never seen before. It turns out, the letter is addressed to her. After seeing the lady hidden in the tree (drawn on the envelope), May starts seeing ghosts in her house. She runs away and discovers a lake in the forest by her house. Funny thing is, the town is in a serious drought that has existed for awhile. When May finds the lake, there is a strangeness about it. Once she falls in, May discovers that she is in the after life. The book starts her journey avoiding the Bogeyman and making her back home.