DATE: Tuesday, October 7, 1997              TAG: 9710070059

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E5   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Children's Book Review 

SOURCE: BY KRYS STEFANSKY, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   33 lines

``MAILING MAY'' IS A STORY OF INGENUITY, AND IT'S TRUE

WHEN MAY ACHES to visit her grandma and her parents can't afford the trip, ingenuity is the answer. This true story takes place in 1914. It chronicles 5-year-old Charlotte May Pierstorff's train trip across 75 miles of Idaho mountains.

``Mailing May'' (Greenwillow Books, $16, ages 4 and up) was her father's grand idea. Back then, a package sent by U.S. mail could weigh up to 50 pounds. Luckily, little May and her valise came in under the limit. With 53 cents worth of stamps glued to a mailing label attached to her coat, May qualified as parcel post and was on the way to Grandma's house.

Sometimes there is a perfect match between author and illustrator. That is the case here. Michael O. Tunnell wrote this in the first person, just as if the real May were telling it to her great-great-grandchildren today. And Ted Rand's luscious watercolor illustrations make this book a collector's delight. Running across two full pages, they are color-rich, historically accurate and loaded with detail.

The reader's eye travels hungrily across the pictures of the department store where May goes to ask for a job and the post office where she begins her trip. The golden glow of kerosene lamps illuminates night scenes. Small sepia-toned snapshots extend the reader's imagination.

This gorgeous book is a treasure. ILLUSTRATION: GREENWILLOW BOOKS

The story told in ``Mailing May'' takes place in 1914.

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