Rating: 
Summary: Gentle but lacking something
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: A Lovely Read for all ages
Review: Book Review: Missing May By: Cynthia Rylant Summer is six years old when her aunt May and Uncle Ob decide to rescue her from her loveless home situation. This is different mainly because May and Ob are passed middle age, more like the age of grandparents. They live as a happy three-person family. May is eccentric and has a heart as big as the universe. Ob and Summer revel in their lives with May. Unfortunately, six years after the three people became a family, May is found in her garden...dead. Ob is so lonely and Summer is afraid that if she can't help him to feel better and find a life on his own without May she is going to lose him, too. Ob tells Summer and her (reluctantly) new friend Cleus Underwood that he feels May around him and would like to contact her. It is Cletus, the strange boy from school that has elderly parents of his own, that thinks he has found a person to help Ob contact her. Ob brightens up, he dresses once again, there is a glint back in his eye, and he even puts his "whirligigs" in May's now uncared for garden. All these signs are a relief for Summer. She will go along with just about anything, including this hair-brained idea, as long as Ob is the better for it. The three set out to meet this soothsayer. Sadly, when they finally go to meet him they find that he has passed on. Ob is again silent. Like all the air has been winded out of him. They are going to leave the city without seeing the sights Cletus has been dying to see. Ob, however, does some internal soul searching and finds that, although they will always miss May, he will be able to live the rest of his life until they meet again in the hereafter. A wonderful and touching book that helps the reader understand a little about how people cope at all ages when a loved one is gone.
Rating: 
Summary: If you have just lost a family member this book is for you!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Short and sweet
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Two people try to live on after May dies.
Review: Summer, a seventh grader, from Ohio, lives with her Uncle Ob, in West Virginia. Her best friend is Cletus, who in Summer's opinion is crazy. The night of May's funeral; Ob went out into his Chevy and just sat there. All three of them try to communicate with May by doing anything they can. They even tried putting whriligigs out in May's garden. When that didn't work, they went to see Reverend Miriam B. Young, also known as the "Bat Lady". Missing May is a heartwarming story with special and emotional parts. It had it's up and downs but it still is very sad. I would recommend it to anyone who has ever read a book. It is a story I will remember forever.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful & Touching Story--for anyone
Review: I am a student at West Virginia State College taking Children's Literature. As part of our assignment, we were to read a Newbery Award Winning Book and write our personal review. This story is about what life was like for some people in the mountains of West Virginia several years ago. It is rich in portraying cultural history of West Virginians. This is important to me because I am a strong believer in learning about one's culture and heritage. I have the goal to teach West Virginia History to 4th or 8th Graders someday and will definitely use this book as part of that. In this book, Rylant seems to be honest with her words. It seems as if these things could actually happen or actually did happen. I grew up near Deep Water Mountain and have passed through there several times. As I read the book, I tried to picture where this had taken place. I wondered if Summer was actually a real person and still alive. This book touched me in many ways. This book would be an excellent aid in allowing someone to learn about dealing with the death of a loved one. I felt as is I could relate to Summer and Ob because my grandmother passed away a few years ago and I had to learn how to deal with it in my own way, just as Summer and Ob did too.
Rating: 
Summary: Missing May
Review: Missing may is a story about a girl who lives with her aunt and uncle, before her aunt dies. It could have been a nearly ok book, but the characters spend too much time thinking and moping and nothing interesting really occers.If you like books that are mainly people feeling miserable about life, check it out- but I wouldnt suggest it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Missing May
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: How do I move on?
Review: Cynthia Rylant's Newberry Medal Award winning book, Missing May, is the story of a family's struggle to move on after the tragic death of a person that held the family together. Summer, is a young girl who lost her mother at a young age and has since jumped around to aunts and uncles that do not really care to have her around. That all changes when Aunt May and Uncle Ob come to visit and decide to take her home with them. After becoming a loving family, May tragically dies and leaves Ob and Summer to fend for themselves. Throughout the book, these two search for a way to deal with their grief. Along their troubled road comes Crazy Cletus Underwood, who in his on way helps these two deal with their loss. This is a story that will help anyone deal with the emotional strain of losing a loved one. Let Ob, Summer and Cletus take you on a great adventure that will keep you turning the pages and hoping that they can find something to fill the hole in their hearts.
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