Johnny May

by Robbie Branscum

A nine-year-old girl recounts her experiences growing up in the Arkansas hill country in the late 1940's.

Genres: Young Adult, Childrens

Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[HeavyReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone on the Abebooks.com BookSleuth and someone on Whatsthatbook.com solved this one for me. Here's the link from Whatsthatbook.com

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...

I still only remember one scene from this book. Johnny May is out picking strawberries when she gets her period for the first time. As she picks the berries, she eats a lot of them too. No one has told her about periods, so when she sees the blood on her panties, she thinks she had eaten so many strawberries that they are passing right through her. I remember her being distressed. Some older woman (her grandma or maybe an aunt, I think) has to explain periods to her. This getting of the period may have ended Johnny May's good times as a tomboy.

I remember liking this book when I read it almost (gasp!) forty years ago.

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in elementary school, having checked it out from our school library. I was born in Arkansas and spent most of my summers there with my father's family, but from age 5 to 16, I was raised by my mother and her unfortunate husband at the time in his home state of Kentucky. My childhood was harsh to say the least, and I often escaped through books when I was allowed to read, or found a way to do so in secret. To find this book, covered in dust in the back of my run-down elementary school library (and I do mean run-down, the building was condemned shortly after my 6th grade year), was fascinating to me. It's a short read, I remember finishing it in a matter of hours, then carefully going over it again and again until its due date. Seeing myself written into those pages-- I've never seen it again, but it's one I remember dearly, right down to the smell of those pages and the texture of the dingy green/brown cloth cover over the binding. This book brought me home during a time I felt isolated from who I was. I know it's more of a coming of age story, but for me, it was a coming home story.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A middle grade read about a young girl growing up in the hills of Arkansas. I loved it as a kid & I loved reading it again as an adult!

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old fashioned type of book...published in 1975. Easy, quick read. Probably will be more appreciated by older readers, perhaps.

[Kaylie McIntosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

So cute!!!!