MAY DAY FOR SAMOSET

by Wilma Pitchford Hays ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 14, 1968

Little Monhegan Island off the Maine Coast becomes a focal point of early colonial America when Pilgrims from Plymouth and survivors from Jamestown come in search of food, and Samoset and his Wawenocks (plus assorted French and Dutch sailors) arrive for the May Day celebration. Young Susan Lull, one of three women in the little (Episcopal) English fishing village, has a problem: what to put in Samoset's May basket since wild flowers and maple sugar are no treat for a forest Indian. Before she reconciles herself to parting with the kitten Samoset admires, we watch the lighting of an Indian May fire and the raising of a Maypole, listen in on discussions of various colonial problems. Bringing everybody's cousin to Monhegan for May Day seems overcompensation for alleged neglect of the island's history; more important, the wisp of a plot is overwhelmed by information and explanation--except of the odd circumstance of a girl child living alone with an older cousin in a small, remote settlement.

Pub Date: March 14, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward-McCann

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1968

Categories: FICTION