Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
54th out of 91 books
—
1,604 voters
Missing May
This critically acclaimed winner of the Newbery Medal and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award joins Scholastic's paperback line.
When May dies suddenly while gardening, Summer assumes she'll never see her beloved aunt again. But then Summer's Uncle Ob claims that May is on her way back--she has sent a sign from the spirit world.
Summer isn't sure she believes in the spirit worl...more
When May dies suddenly while gardening, Summer assumes she'll never see her beloved aunt again. But then Summer's Uncle Ob claims that May is on her way back--she has sent a sign from the spirit world.
Summer isn't sure she believes in the spirit worl...more
Paperback, 89 pages
Published
June 1st 2004
by Scholastic Paperbacks
(first published March 1st 1992)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
As part of my quest to read all the Newberry Award Winners, I bought and started Missing May. Cynthia Rylant also wrote a short story called "Checkouts" that I thought was genius so I was eager to start this book. I started reading this book and for whatver reason couldn't really catch the rhythm of the author. I had to re-read the first chapter a couple of times to make sure that I knew what was going on.
This book is about a young girl name Summer that loses her parents in a flood and ends up...more
This book is about a young girl name Summer that loses her parents in a flood and ends up...more
"Missing May" is a short book that can be read in one sitting. Even though it is short there is nothing lacking in the story. All the characters are developed wonderfully and they all end up feeling like old friends.
It is a poignant novel about death and the depression that follows the loss of a loved one.
Summer loses her mother and goes to live with various kin, but never feels unconditionally loved by any of them, she is even afraid to ask for more milk. Then Ob and May come visiting and they...more
It is a poignant novel about death and the depression that follows the loss of a loved one.
Summer loses her mother and goes to live with various kin, but never feels unconditionally loved by any of them, she is even afraid to ask for more milk. Then Ob and May come visiting and they...more
Summer and Uncle Obe recently lost their beloved May. Summer is coping, not only with her own grief, but also with the fact that Uncle Obe is dying inside. The unique character, Cletus Underwood, enters their lives and the three go on a quest for a spiritual connection to May.
Of Missing May, Cynthia Rylant says, "I'm not sure where this story came from. But I was raised in rural West Virginia and I knew a lot of characters like Ob and Cletus and May. I just felt I was writing about my own people...more
Of Missing May, Cynthia Rylant says, "I'm not sure where this story came from. But I was raised in rural West Virginia and I knew a lot of characters like Ob and Cletus and May. I just felt I was writing about my own people...more
Awards Won: Newbery Medal (1993)
This is a short book about a learning to cope with the loss of a loved on. The main character Summer lives in a run-down trailer with her Aunt May and Uncle Ob. Summer is extremely happy with her current home-life, after previously having to cope with the death of her own mother. When May dies, Summer fears that she will lose Ob to the grief that he can't seem to overcome. But, with the help of an unlikely friend, Summer and Ob begin to learn how to heal. This boo...more
This is a short book about a learning to cope with the loss of a loved on. The main character Summer lives in a run-down trailer with her Aunt May and Uncle Ob. Summer is extremely happy with her current home-life, after previously having to cope with the death of her own mother. When May dies, Summer fears that she will lose Ob to the grief that he can't seem to overcome. But, with the help of an unlikely friend, Summer and Ob begin to learn how to heal. This boo...more
Joce read this first, then I read it to Sam. It is a sweet story about the perspective of a poor Southern girl named Summer, and her old Southern Uncle Ob.
Here's what happened: Summer is a 12 year old girl. For the past six years, she was lovingly raised by her old aunt and uncle. Her Aunt May died while gardening, and now Summer and Ob are having a hard time getting by without her. With the help of Cletus, a road trip, , some governmental intrigue, and a couple stabs at spirituality, everyone...more
Here's what happened: Summer is a 12 year old girl. For the past six years, she was lovingly raised by her old aunt and uncle. Her Aunt May died while gardening, and now Summer and Ob are having a hard time getting by without her. With the help of Cletus, a road trip, , some governmental intrigue, and a couple stabs at spirituality, everyone...more
When people dismissively say "typical Newbery winner" and it's not a compliment, I think this is exactly the sort of book they are thinking of: an orphaned foster child mourning her dead aunt, a quirky neighbor boy, very little action, lots of introspection, almost no kid-appeal.
That's not to say that it's not also a very well-written, moving account of the grief process as seen through one small family, or that the award wasn't deserved. I haven't read the 1993 honor books yet, and can't remem...more
That's not to say that it's not also a very well-written, moving account of the grief process as seen through one small family, or that the award wasn't deserved. I haven't read the 1993 honor books yet, and can't remem...more
This book is a wonderful children's story. The main characters are a 12-year-old girl named Summer, a boy who is collector of pictures named Cletus, Summer's uncle Ob, and aunt MAY. May dies in the garden as she is gardening. (The book doesn't say why). Ob and Summer have a hard time going on without May. Ob doesn't get Summer up one morning because he has a bad dream. Summer calls her school and tells them she that she won't be at school that day. Later, when that boy Cletus is snooping around...more
The day I read this book was a really hard day in a long string of really hard days. I read it all in one night. I've never read a book in one day before. I needed a good book that day and this book was it. I'm not even sure why I picked this book, or why I went looking for a book in the first place since I'm fighting my way through "The Story of Mankind" and really need to get through that book first. But for whatever reason I went looking for a book because I knew I needed one and I walked int...more
I actually really liked this book. I liked Cletus because he was extremely eccentric but that was an endearing quality to me. He also helped both Ob and Summer in the least likely ways. I really liked Summer too. She was stoic in the beginning and then her walls came down and you realized she needed to free herself from the grief. I know right now, I never would have read it when I was younger. This book was sad and almost made me tear up but it was also hopeful and uplifting. While I read this,...more
Missing May is a realistic fiction book written for children. It centers around a young girl, Summer, who was raised by her aunt May and uncle Ob. Early in the book May dies, leaving Summer and Ob lost and wandering for the meaning of life. I read this book as a shared reading with my 5th grade students, who seemed to be at the perfect developmental level to appreciate the themes in the book. The book will appeal strongly to students who have dealt with death in their personal lives, as it explo...more
It seems to Summer that everybody in her life leaves too soon. Her mother died when she was young, and after that she was passed around to live with relatives, to be “treated like a homework assignment somebody was always having to do,” and never staying with any relative for very long. And then Ob and May came along when Summer was six. Her aunt and uncle were elderly by the time Summer went to live with them in their Deep Water trailer, but she didn’t mind. For the first time since her mother’...more
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 turne...more
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 turne...more
May 08, 2011
Rain Misoa
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Lovers of Children's Literature and People of All Ages in General!
Recommended to Rain by:
Nicole Terazue
Ah, nostalgia! I love this book! Ever since my friend introduced me to this book a few months back and I read it, it always stood with me as a very moving, beautiful story. I enjoyed reading this again for the second time and for many more times to come, I'm sure! Everything about the novel from the characters to the plot to the writing itself was simply amazing and I cannot say enough of how great this book is. I truly do not regret picking this up!
Cynthia Rylant is such a good author. Her writ...more
Cynthia Rylant is such a good author. Her writ...more
1 like · like · see review
1993 Newbery winner. Short and sweet. Exactly as long as it needed to be. I liked this story.
"Before she died, I know my mother must have loved to comb my shiny hair and rub that Jonhson's baby lotion up and down my arms and wrap me up and hold and hold me all night long. She must have known she wasn't going to live and she must have held me longer than any other mother might, so I'd have enough love in me to know what love was when I saw it or felt it again."
"May understood people and she let t...more
"Before she died, I know my mother must have loved to comb my shiny hair and rub that Jonhson's baby lotion up and down my arms and wrap me up and hold and hold me all night long. She must have known she wasn't going to live and she must have held me longer than any other mother might, so I'd have enough love in me to know what love was when I saw it or felt it again."
"May understood people and she let t...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I've been reading lots of Cynthia Rylant books aloud to my youngest son (The Lighthouse Family series, and the High-Rise Private Eyes series). She has such a wonderful way to writing - wonderfully expressive vocabulary, caring relationships, success in the face of challenges, etc. You just feel warm inside reading them. The book jacket in one of those series mentions her award-winning books, including Missing May, so I grabbed it off the shelf when looking for audiobooks a few weeks back. I'm so...more
Apr 19, 2011
Cathy
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Cathy by:
Newbery Award
Since Summer was six years old she lived with dear Aunt May and Uncle Ob. Now, six years later, Aunt May has died. Summer, who misses May with all her might, is afraid something will happen to Ob. Most days Ob seems like he doesn't want to go on. But then Ob feels May's spirit around him and he wants to contact her. Cletus Underwood, a strange boy from school, reads about someone who could help him do that. Summer wants to hear from May too. Ob and Summer don't know what to expect when they set...more
As Summer’s mother dies, she is lucky enough to not be sent to the orphanage. Instead, Summer is passed down from family to family as they decide they do not want to care for her anymore. It wasn’t until her uncle Ob and aunt May stopped by for a family reunion that changed her life forever. Ob and May who had always wanted a child but could never bare one, finally got their wish come true when they saw Summer. Summer had finally found a home in West Virgin, where she had two loving parent, Ob a...more
Missing May is about a girl named Summer, who comes to live with her Aunt May and Uncle Ob in West Virginia when she was little, because when her mother died, nobody wanted her. When May dies, everything is ruined, and evrybody is sad... especially Ob. When Summer meets Cletus Underwood, a guy in her school who she thinks is crazy, she soon learns that Cletus knows a person who can speak to the dead to talk to May. Once Summer knows she can trust Cletus, they soon share much in common, and beco...more
Oct 25, 2010
Joan Innes
added it
This is a lovely little story with characters to whom you grow attached. Summer is orphaned as a young girl, but she clearly understands how much love her mother must have had for her even as a baby, and this gives her a sense of self and strength. She initially is a hand-me-down to family that don't welcome her with open arms. Instead they are miserly with their love, homes, and even food. To the rescue come Uncle Ob and Aunt May in West Viginia who accept this little girl joyously. Once again...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
“Inspiration from Beyond”
Narrated in the first person by a 12-year-old girl named Summer, this slim volume reveals different ways that people cope with the death of a loved one. For six years now Uncle Ob and Aunt May have provided the family orphan with the best home she has ever known: giving her love that does not have to be earned or repaid, the development of self-esteem and the freedom to explore nature and her own feelings. Then suddenly her beloved May dies and Uncle Ob seems to devote...more
Narrated in the first person by a 12-year-old girl named Summer, this slim volume reveals different ways that people cope with the death of a loved one. For six years now Uncle Ob and Aunt May have provided the family orphan with the best home she has ever known: giving her love that does not have to be earned or repaid, the development of self-esteem and the freedom to explore nature and her own feelings. Then suddenly her beloved May dies and Uncle Ob seems to devote...more
Jul 07, 2011
Donna Crane
added it
As the narrator Summer describes it, tears would come to her eyes even as a six year old child when she would see how much her adopted parents, Ob and May loved each other. This love they shared with her and it poured out from their modest trailer in West Virginia. When Ob made his whirligigs, they were transformed into high art. When May worked in her garden, it became Eden. Then May dies and the two of them are bereft. They can't even define how to go on, until in a revelation, they begin a ro...more
Set in rural West Virginia, the main theme of this contemporary, intermediate novel is how the main character, Summer, deals with the death of her beloved Aunt May. Orphaned, Summer comes to live with Aunt May and Uncle Ob (a whirligig artist) as a young child. They love her completely and when May suddenly dies, she and Ob are left bereft and helpless. As Ob sinks deeper into depression, Summer's fear of losing her only remaining relative increases. When Cletus, a peer at school, suggests they...more
After the death of Summer's mom, Summer is passed from family to family until her 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. (not a spoiler! I promise!) Both Summer and Uncle Ob are having a hard time coping with the death. When things seem like they can get no worse, Cletus Underwood from her seventh grade class gets involved, and Summer doesn't think very highly of him! Cletus ends up helping S...more
Why is it that I have become such a big Cynthia Rylant fan, especially loving her Mr. Putter and Tabby series, a series of very short chapter books, and yet I found this book too short?
Missing May is the story of a girl, Summer, who lost her parents and thought she'd never find love again. Then she came to live with Aunt May and Uncle Ob. May and Ob were the embodiment of love. Summer was rapturously happy until one day May collapsed and died while working in her garden.
Ob and Summer were fille...more
Missing May is the story of a girl, Summer, who lost her parents and thought she'd never find love again. Then she came to live with Aunt May and Uncle Ob. May and Ob were the embodiment of love. Summer was rapturously happy until one day May collapsed and died while working in her garden.
Ob and Summer were fille...more
Since summer was six years old she lived with dear Aunt May and Uncle Ob. Now, six years later, Aunt May has died. Summer, who misses May with all her might, is afraid something will happen to Ob. Most days Ob seems like he doesn't want to go on.
But then Ob feels May's spirit around him and he wants to contact her. Cletus Underwood, a strange boy from school, reads about someone who could help him do that. Summer wants to hear from May too.
Ob and Summer don't know what to expect when they set of...more
But then Ob feels May's spirit around him and he wants to contact her. Cletus Underwood, a strange boy from school, reads about someone who could help him do that. Summer wants to hear from May too.
Ob and Summer don't know what to expect when they set of...more
Summer is a 12 year old girl that is dealing with the recent death of her Aunt May. Her Uncle Ob isn't able to function after May died so Summer takes care of her uncle. During this time they befriend Cletus who is their neighbor. One day Ob feels May's presence and believes that it is a sign that she is trying to tell them something. From this they go on an adventure to find a medium that can tell them what May wants them to hear.
Overall a very sweet story that touches on how to move forward fr...more
Overall a very sweet story that touches on how to move forward fr...more
A little girl by the name of Summer has been through many adoption homes. She doesn't feel like she is loved because of this. She then comes across her older uncle Ob and aunt May. They decide to take her to live with them in a small town in West Virginia. May loves the little girl very much and even though they don't have much to give Summer, Summer finally finds love. But May suddenly dies. And the rest of the story is about Ob and Summer going through the stages of grief. They feel empty insi...more
I would give this book three and a half stars.
The telling of this graceful story is so low-key and understated that if one doesn't pay close attention, one might miss the most substantial parts of the narrative.
I almost felt as if the events in the story weren't ultimately as important to the plot as the telling itself, an unusual feeling that I really haven't had with any other books. Cynthia Rylant knows words on a rarely intimate basis, and it is this deep connection that allows her to cra...more
The telling of this graceful story is so low-key and understated that if one doesn't pay close attention, one might miss the most substantial parts of the narrative.
I almost felt as if the events in the story weren't ultimately as important to the plot as the telling itself, an unusual feeling that I really haven't had with any other books. Cynthia Rylant knows words on a rarely intimate basis, and it is this deep connection that allows her to cra...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
An author of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for children and young adults as well as an author and author/illustrator of picture books for children, Cynthia Rylant is recognized as a gifted writer who has contributed memorably to several genres of juvenile literature. A prolific author who often bases her works on her own background, especially on her childhood in the West Virginia mountains, she...more
More about Cynthia Rylant...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“[May] understood people and she let them be whatever way they needed to be. She had faith in every single person she ever met, and this never failed her, for nobody ever disappointed May. Seems people knew she saw the very best of them, and they'd turn that side to her to give her a better look.”
—
12 people liked it
“But what is it that makes a person want to stay here on this earth anyway, and go on suffering the most awful pain just for the sake of getting to stay? I used to think it was because people fear death. But now I think it is because people can't bear saying goodbye.”
—
8 people liked it
More quotes…
Oct 25, 2009 08:51am