The Ever After Bird

Lonely and shy, ten-year-old May Ellen Bird has no idea what awaits her when she falls into the lake and enters The Ever After, home of ghosts and the Bogey Man.

In 1851, thirteen-year-old Cecilia has her eyes opened to the horrors of slavery when she accompanies her ornithologist uncle on an expedition in search of the rare "Scarlet Ibis," and watches as he shows slaves the way to the Underground Railroad.

Lonely and shy, ten-year-old May Ellen Bird has no idea what awaits her when she falls into the lake and enters The Ever After, home of ghosts and the Bogey Man.

At Hog Wallow Middle School, May Ellen Bird was always slightly invisible. Then she went on a long trip to the land of the dead, where ghost towns glowed blue in the dark dusk and spooky specters dwelled in cities on the Dead Sea. Back on Earth at last, May and her hairless cat, Somber Kitty, are now famous, their faces plastered across souvenirs and sportswear that read "May Bird Went to the Land of the Dead and All She Brought Me Was This Lousy T-Shirt." But, finally in the spotlight, May feels more than ever that she doesn't belong. Every night she sits by her bedroom window, gazing at the sky and dreaming of another place, wishing -- despite herself -- to be back among the ghosts. And then one night she gets her heart's desire in a way she would never have wished for. Only the Ever After isn't anything like the world May left behind three years ago. The spirits have vanished, and the towns -- once full of every manner of things that go bump in the night -- are deserted. Evil Bo Cleevil has made the Ever After as cold as his own frigid soul, and put up a bunch of tacky malls to boot. Now, with her friends missing and enemies all around her, May must find her way to the edge of the universe, where night swallows the stars, where allies are few and often have bad breath, where endings can also be beginnings, and where the truest hero lurks in the unlikeliest of souls. But Bo Cleevil's got one last trick up his sleeve -- one that no one on Earth is ready for. With the worlds of the living and the dead in the balance, will May's courage fail her one last time? Or will she finally become the warrior she was always meant to be?

Journey to the Ever After with the fantastical and otherworldly May Bird trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson, now available in a collectible boxed set! When May Bird and her faithful companion, Somber Kitty, encounter the ghostly world of the Ever After, their (after)lives will change forever. This collectible boxed set includes paperback editions of: The Ever After: Shy, precocious May Bird wants nothing more than to be accepted. One day she falls through a lake into the Ever After, a world of ghosts. As she journeys through fantastic lands, she gathers an unusual group of new friends who join together to overcome the chillingly evil Bo Cleevil and find their way home. Among the Stars: May Bird continues her adventure through the Ever After in pursuit of home. Along the way, she and her friends encounter all sorts of places and ghosts, from the terrifying to the hilarious. Finally May learns that the only way home is through the evil Bogey’s personal portal, which he uses to scare kids in their nightmares. Warrior Princess: Now thirteen and home in Briery Swamp, May is still haunted by thoughts of the friends she left behind in the Ever After. Then one night May travels back to the Ever After—only to learn that the evil Bo Cleevil is close to making his reign supreme. At last, May is ready to live up to the prophecy that placed the fate of the Ever After in her hands, and battle Bo Cleevil himself to save not only this world but her own as well.

~Lambda Literary Award finalist for the best LGBT YA novel of 2018~ A fresh, charming rom-com perfect for fans of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Boy Meets Boy about Nathan Bird, who has sworn off happy endings but is sorely tested when his former best friend, Ollie, moves back to town. Nathan Bird doesn’t believe in happy endings. Although he’s the ultimate film buff and an aspiring screenwriter, Nate’s seen the demise of too many relationships to believe that happy endings exist in real life. Playing it safe to avoid a broken heart has been his MO ever since his father died and left his mom to unravel—but this strategy is not without fault. His best-friend-turned-girlfriend-turned-best-friend-again, Florence, is set on making sure Nate finds someone else. And in a twist that is rom-com-worthy, someone does come along: Oliver James Hernández, his childhood best friend. After a painful mix-up when they were little, Nate finally has the chance to tell Ollie the truth about his feelings. But can Nate find the courage to pursue his own happily ever after?

Still trapped in the Ever After, ten-year-old May Bird struggles to decide whether to save the world of her ghostly friends from the evil Bo Cleevil or to return to her West Virginia home.

Entrenched secrets, mysterious spirits, and an astonishing friendship weave together in this extraordinary and haunting debut that School Library Journal calls “a powerful story about loss and moving on.” Nothing matters. Only Bird matters. And he flew away. Jewel never knew her brother Bird, but all her life she has lived in his shadow. Her parents blame Grandpa for the tragedy of their family’s past: they say that Grandpa attracted a malevolent spirit—a duppy—into their home. Grandpa hasn’t spoken a word since. Now Jewel is twelve, and she lives in a house full of secrets and impenetrable silence. Jewel is sure that no one will ever love her like they loved Bird, until the night that she meets a mysterious boy in a tree. Grandpa is convinced that the boy is a duppy, but Jewel knows that he is something more. And that maybe—just maybe—the time has come to break through the stagnant silence of the past.