Customer Reviews

Missing May (Yearling Newbery)

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I got this book a long while ago - I think I started reading it about 2 and a half years ago, but I got bored with it and didn't read any more. Then yesterday I found it on a bookshelf, and remembered two and a half years ago when I put it down. I started reading it, and somehow it had a different effect on me. I truly see the value of this calm and peaceful book. True, it doesn't have a lot to keep a person interested, but if you persevere to the end, you might also see the value of this book. I just have to warn you first - you will not find any action or fantasy in this book. This made it quite realistic to me. You probably know the plot by now from other reviews (Summer lives with Ob & May - uncle & aunt; May dies; Summer & Ob grieve; A boy named Cletus Underwood from school reads about someone who might help them communicate with May...). The end is touching and I really think this book has to sink into your mind for you to see the real value of this. I am very knowledgeable about the Newbery criteria, and in my opinion, this is one of the best choices for the Newbery Medal ever. I hope you will like it too, but I do recommend checking it out from your library before buying it, because many people won't like this book. One more thing - I usually do not like books about people dying and their relatives grieving, but I made an exception for this book.

I'm not an adult, but I still enjoyed this story. Summer had an unconventional home: she lived with her great-aunt and uncle. She was content, until her aunt May died. Suddenly, Summer and her uncle Ob were wraiths of their former selves. Cletus, an eccentric classmate of Summer's, began visiting them and took their minds off May. But Ob was slowly losing the joy of living. In a quest to find closure, Summer, Ob, and Cletus went to find a spiritualist to help them communicate with May. Unfortunately, the medium too was dead. Somehow, though, they found a way to carry on. I liked the writing style, except for many run-on sentences that got annoying to read. The characters were pleasant people with pleasant names and sounded real enough to live next door. However, I didn't understand what brought back Ob's will to live as quickly as he had lost it. But I guess that happens sometimes in real life, on the roller coaster called grief. I reccomend this book to almost anyone, especially those who have lost loved ones.

Missing May is a book about a girl named Summer whose parents died. She is passed around her Aunts and Uncles. Then her relatives Ob and May take her in. Later May dies and Ob has great difficulty accepting ger death. He tries a lot of ways to contact May in the other world. The book tells you how Summer deals with May's death and Ob being depressed about it. I really liked this book because the way it is written makes it so realistic.

The narrator of Missing May, Summer, has lost both of her parents and felt unwanted everywhere, until her elderly Uncle Ob and Aunt May take her in. Living with these two gentle souls, Summer begins to once again feel real familial love. Then Aunt May dies, plunging Ob and Summer into unrelenting sadness.

A classmate of Summer's, the eccentric Cletus Underwood, convinces Ob and Summer to embark on a journey to visit a medium he has read about. They agree and begin a trip, several hours by car. Somewhere along the way, they learn to accept the past and embrace the future.

Rylant, who won a Newbery Medal for this book, uses a gentle touch to tell this quiet story. She develops her characters by dropping subtle hints through their words and actions. She also incorporates rich seasonal symbolism. Yet, something about this book just didn't work for me. Perhaps I kept waiting for something to happen, some epiphany that never arrived. Though I could appreciate Rylant's craft, I didn't come away from the book feeling awed, but rather lulled and somewhat disappointed.

Summer has been taken into a new home with her aunt and uncle May and Ob. One day in Febuary May died. Summer and Od suffered, after her deaf all they would is sit queit. Untill they met with an anoying boy named Cletus, he rides the bus with summer every day. Cletus is kind of the answer to all their problems because ever since they met Cletus and every thing changed. Cynthia Rylant wrote a great book, Missing May REALLY recommend that you read it.

Cletus is one of the characters in this story whom i admire the most the reason I admire cletus the most is because he is funny and always seems to be happy, he halps Ob get through his problems and helps Ob see the bright side. I would also want to be in Cletus shoes because he doesn't have to suffer as much as Summer and Ob are. If I would lose some one so important to me it would kind of be my mom because i love her more than anyone. If you read this book it will be your favorite.

After the death of Summer's mother, Summer is passed from one foster home to another at the age of only six years old. This is when a miracle happens. Aunt May and Uncle Ob decide to take her back with them to West Virginia. When Summer thinks her life is finally getting better, Aunt May dies. Both Summer and Uncle Ob are having a hard time coping with the death of their loved one. When things seem like they can get no worse, Cletus Underwood from her seventh grade class gets involved. Cletus ends up helping Summer discover a number of things about herself. She learns to deal with death and help Uncle Ob recover in a way she did not expect.

This is a great book to read. It helps both children and adults understand how to deal with losing a loved one. The author uses both humor and suspense to entice and captivate the reader.

Loving is Believing
By Tanner

In the book Missing May by Cynthia Rylant, Summer is a 10 year old girl whose parents have died and she is living with her aunt and uncle. Sadly, another tragedy happened. Her aunt May died and now she is all alone living with her uncle Ob. How will Summer survive with such sadness in her heart? This is a must read book but you definitely need to be mature enough to be ready for the sadness.
I think Cynthia Rylant chose this book to be sad because sadness keeps you wanting to read more. I would describe this book being about faith and losses because there seriously were only a few parts in the story that didn't make me sad. In the book, Summer and Ob need to get over the sadness so they do stuff together that will take their minds off the situation. They look for a sign from nature to help them move on with their lives.
I think this book was chosen as a Newberry Honor book because Cynthia Rylant did a great job of getting people to have emotion and feel attached to the book, which is hard for most authors to do. This book really got me to "feel" for the characters with all the sadness, which can be relatable to people who have experienced a loss of a loved one. The way Cynthia Rylant described sadness really made me sad because she didn't just say May died, she described the emotions and thoughts going on perfectly. For example, Cynthia Rylant described Summer as being filled with tears as she thought of how much love May had given Ob and it reminded her of the love her own mother must have felt towards her. This book totally deserves the Newberry Honor.
Cynthia Rylant made me feel attached to the characters almost as if they were real. This made me feel even worse for Summer and Ob and especially sad for the people who died. It was really sweet how Summer and Ob cared so much about each other, and because it was only them together they got to know each other really well. They talked about their feelings while fishing, and Ob would tell Summer stories about her mom and how similar Summer was to her mom. Summer's parents had died when Summer was really young so Summer didn't have many memories of them. No one wanted to adopt her except for Ob and May who knew what she was going through and wanted to help. Cynthia Rylant created a clear picture in my head of everything that was going on and how the characters related to each other, which most books don't do. This is probably another reason it got a Newberry medal.
I know that it is hard for an author to bring out true emotions through a book, but Cynthia Rylant did that perfectly. This book had everything a perfect book has. It's adventurous, sad, gripping, and it brings out the reader's feelings. It was a bit slow at the beginning, but I still loved it. I recommend having a box of tissues while reading, and if you are emotional have two boxes, because it is really touching. I also recommend it to more mature or older people, maybe ages 15-50 years. I bet you if you read it you will love it as much as I did.

Missing May by, Cynthia Rylant is filled with adventure and mixed emotions. Missing May takes place in a town called Deep Water. By using clues from the story I can interpret that it takes place in the present. May, Summer, Ob and Cletus are the four main characters. May is a gentle old woman and her husband Ob is artistic in a creative way. Their niece Summer is independent and always tries to prove herself right. However Cletus their neighbor is always sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. Summer's, Cletus' and Ob's determination to get in touch with May after her death is what this story revolves around. Missing May is a heartwarming adventure that is just too exciting to put down.
Cynthia Rylant's Newberry Medal book is a must read! May's family fights to connect with her death is just one detail that makes this book a must read. When Cletus enters the life of Summer and Ob he spices up their life with photographs of places and objects they have never seen before. Intense feelings shared by these three characters also make you want to keep turning the page. Whoever sees this book and doesn't read it is missing out on a book you will never forget.
Cynthia Rylant, the author of this book and her history will make you want to read all of her books. Cynthia wrote sixty books and published her first book in 1982. Ms. Rylant has also won many Newberry Medals overall Cynthia Rylant's book Missing May will change the way you look at life forever.

Missing May is a wondrous tale of grief and recovery. The author deserves all the recognition she received for this book. I am amazed that, even though it is written for young readers, just how much it appeals to adults. I remember years ago when it was read to one of my college classes by our professor. It literally brought tears to almost everyone's eyes. The book is so skillfully written that it transcends age levels, genres, and labels. Not a single word is wasted in this story. I highly recommend it.

I am a student in Roger Samples' Children's Literature class at West Virginia State University for Summer 2005. I chose "Missing May" for my Newbery Award book. I chose this book because it is also the required summer reading project for my 6th grade son. The book is a touching story about life, death, growing up, and moving on. As a future teacher, this book is an excellent book for the upper-level elementary classroom. It is a great story to be enjoyed by anyone!