Rating: 
Summary: Missing May
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Finding your way
Review: This 1993 Newbery winner by Cynthia Rylant shows the struggles of a young lady, Summer who does her best to keep up the different adversities that she faces in life. After being passed from home to home by relatives she lands in the home of an elderly aunt and uncle who absolutely adore her and treat her like she is someone special. Her happiness is short lived when tragedy strikes her life and book gives us a view of what it is like for a young person to cope with death. I enjoyed this book because the interactions between the characters and the story are humorous and yet believable. It is great to what the characters grow throughout the story as each one deals with the adversities of life.
Rating: 
Summary: Missing May
Review: The oft quoted line "Death is a part of Life" and the acceptance of that fact is the essence of this book. The bond of love shared by the elderly couple and the little girl remained even through the difficult times following Aunt May's passing.Written in the first-person singular, the book made me truly feel as though I were experiencing the thoughts of a little girl that bore the responsibility of helping her uncle cope with death. The vivid descriptions of life in the West Virginia community and reflections on school are assets to be enjoyed by the reader. Cletus provides the needed "comic relief" in a story that deals with death. Cletus is a "pack rat" that accumulates odds and ends in a series of satchels. He collects old newspapers, photographs, brochures, and advertisements. It is from this assortment that he tells Uncle Ob about the psychic that might be able to reach Aunt May. Even though the trip to Charleston does not yield the intended "meeting" with Aunt May, Uncle Ob receives a new lease on life. The underlying message here is that the dead are best remembered for the life that they led. The living should continue as best as they can; lives should not be spent in mourning. This is a powerful story told with straightforwardness and compassion. If one criticism must be cited, it is the use of a few profane words in what is classified as a "children's book." I realize that children's literature has changed significantly since my youth, but I fail to see the inclusion of one or two curse words to be necessary. Call me "old-fashioned," but reader/parent beware.
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