May Bird Books in Order

May Bird begins with a girl who would much rather disappear into the woods than deal with school. May Bird is shy, bright, and a little strange in ways other kids do not always understand. In Briery Swamp, with her hairless cat Somber Kitty beside her, she can pretend she is a warrior princess and feel safe. Then one wrong step sends her through a hidden lake and into the Ever After, a ghost-filled world where the rules of life and death are nothing like the ones she knows.

That is the central appeal of the series. The Ever After is creepy, funny, and wonderfully specific. Towns glow blue under rushing stars. Ghosts walk through walls. The Book of the Dead holds the answers to everything. And somewhere in all of that is Bo Cleevil, the ruler who would happily destroy May if he finds her. In The Ever After, the story is a survival quest first. May needs to stay hidden, find allies, and work out how to get home.

She does not stay alone for long.

Along the way May gathers a delightfully odd group of companions, including Pumpkin, Beatrice, Captain Fabbio, and, of course, Somber Kitty. In Among the Stars, the series opens up even more as May travels deeper through the Ever After in search of the mysterious Lady of North Farm, the one figure who may be able to guide her home. The books keep balancing danger with absurdity, so one chapter can feel spooky and the next can make you laugh at something gloriously weird.

By Warrior Princess, Anderson brings May back to the Ever After under very different circumstances. Time has passed, May has changed, and the ghost world she once knew is no longer the same. The stakes become much bigger, touching both the world of the living and the world of the dead, but the emotional center stays familiar. May still has to grow into her own courage. She still has to decide whether the brave person she imagines can become the person she really is.

These are middle grade fantasy novels, but they have a slightly gothic mood that makes them stand out. They are full of lonely places, strange creatures, and children who feel out of step with the people around them. If that sounds heavy, it is not, because Anderson keeps the books moving and remembers that adventure should be fun. Read in order, the trilogy becomes a story about belonging, imagination, and the moment a frightened kid starts acting like the hero she has been pretending to be all along.