Missing May

I was reading this book when I got word that one of the beautiful little girls in our extended family had been killed in a tragic accident. I don't know if the reason I loved this book is because I more closely related to the protagonist due to my sense of loss or because the story helped me in grieving our family's precious child. Although May was anything but a child, the dual sense of loss Ryland portrays is brilliant. Not having May in her family left Summer with a hole she did not know how to fill. May's loss also threatened her with the loss of Ob, May's husband. And without May, both Summer and Ob felt they had fully lost their way in life.

Hope came in the form of a boy named Cletus, whose growing up was so vastly different from show more Summer's and who (whom?) Summer Did Not Like. Yet Ob readily took to the boy as if they were old friends. We might say that Cletus was 11 going on 30, so wise he sometimes seemed. It was Cletus who found the path to help Summer and Ob find a path leading them to peace and permission to miss May without feeling totally lost themselves. show less

Ob and May took Summer in when she was six years old, shunted from one relative to another. They didn't have much, just a trailer in rural West Virginia, but they gave her the unconditional love and acceptance she had been craving all her life. Then, when Summer was 12, May died, leaving Summer and Ob feeling lost and adrift. If only there were some way to talk to May just one last time...

It's rare to find a book for older children than handles grief so well. This book is slight, and the plot is definitely secondary to the characters. It's a "typical" Newbery winner in many ways (realistic fiction, female protagonist, plot less important than character development), but that doesn't take away from the fact that it is very, very well show more written. show less

Be sure to have a box of tissues by your side if/when you read this poignantly wonderful book of loss that wounds and love that transcends the sadness of death, enabling the spirit to keep living through the pain.

Cynthia Rylant, the author of this 1993 Newbery Medal award winning book, is rightfully deserving of the honor.

While small in the number of pages, it is large in depth and meaning. It packs a soft wallop as each and every word is used with such powerful poetry that I marveled as I turned the pages.

Narrated by Summer, we learn of the difficult early years after her mother died and she was complacently passed along to a series of family members. "Every house I had ever lived in was so particular about its food, and especially show more when the food involved me. I felt like one of those little mice who has to figure out the right button to push before its food will drop down into the cup. Caged and begging. That's how I felt sometimes."

Rescued by elderly Aunt May and Uncle Ob, Summer finally finds a secure, stable home as she lives with these two wonderful people who, while lacking in financial resources, have an abundance of love.

When Aunt May dies, in deep grief, Summer's fears of abandonment and insecurity arise as she watches Uncle Ob slip into depression.

Enter anything but ordinary, highly eccentric, classmate Cletus Underwood who brings a unique joy and unconventionality to the two deeply hurting souls.

I liked everything about this book. Rich in symbolism, the words gentle power come to mind.

Highly recommended. show less

I LOVE children's work. I typically love Newbery winners and honors but, I've found that lately, I've not been enjoying them. I thought it to be due to throwing myself into my adult classical fiction and non-fiction. I was a sadden by this.

And then I found Missing May or, should I say, I found Cynthia Rylant. My heart is crying and in all the good ways. This story has it all. The narration is spot on. You connect with the person telling the story, they voice is unique, and it stays solid throughout the novel. It is relatable and so are all the characters, even with their quirks. These are no cardboard characters that you forget. They are well rounded and the author makes them come alive with just a few words. The setting is simple and show more yet full of life. The subject is one that many find hard to present to children and yet Rylant does it so well that even an adult can read this piece and, even with the simple sentences, they can feel the complexity of the subject and still feel at ease.

It was so refreshing to read this and stay in touch with everything, the characters, setting, and narrator. Throughout it was hard not to laugh, grieve, and have a renewal of life. show less

Five stars for this 1992 book, winner of the Newberry Medal and many other awards. This novella is a beautiful story about love, found family, death, and grief - about healing with the help of friends. It's really moving and comforting, and the 12-year-old protagonist has a compelling inner voice that sings of truth. There's some low-key use of dialect and local diction (this is set in West Virginia), but it isn't annoying or false to the ear.

As for the suggested age of the reader: with this topic, death of a primary caregiver/parental figure, it would depend on the emotional maturity of the reader and the child's life experiences. Spirituality is nuanced in the book, and the characters have faith in the afterlife, but there is some show more element of belief in spirits of the dead visiting the bereaved. Having experienced this myself, I feel this is well handled. There is a reader's guide at the end to lead a discussion if needed. show less

An elegiac tale of an orphan named Summer and her guardian Ob, dealing with the loss of Ob's wife and her stand-in mom, May.

This very short tale is equal parts sad and hopeful. Summer, who narrates, Ob, and their new (reluctantly so on Summer's part) friend Cletus, find their way after May's death. Could be a good conversation starter with kids about dealing with grief.

This book is beautifully written: the words are so carefully chosen and woven together that I was deeply touched multiple times.

It's a quick read and I got the feeling that the author didn't exactly know how to finish it.

I didn't care for the the eschatology described, but it does work with the characters' worldview and seems consistent there.

It would be neat to visit with the two younger characters in fifteen years to see where they've gone and what they've done.