Author: Cynthia Rylant
Summary:
Like Sarah, Plain and Tall...Missing May also has a sad moving storyline that touches people's heart and makes you wonder why do things like these happen. Missing May is about a girl name Summer and her uncle Ob missing the women in their life name May. Summer is a young girl that was taken in by her aunt May and uncle Ob during one of their visits to Ohio. Now that May is gone, uncle Ob doesn't talk much and Summer is wondering if he will give her up to someone else. Things have changed whereas now Summer walks to wait for the school by herself, no one bothers to make breakfast and Summer has to get up on her own to get ready for school.
Everything Uncle Ob did he believed that May was there with him, never doubting that she left even though he knew she was gone in body but not in spirit. At times he looked spaced out, he would say to Summer that shes not gone. One day Ob got sick and looked like he was giving up, Summer found him in bed and quickly helped him to try and get better which is something that he really didn't care about until one day a neighbor name Cletus showed up and said that Ob needed to see a spiritualist.
After a long discussion they all decided that they would go and seek help for Ob. Finally when they got there through the means of driving far, they found out that she had passed a couple of months before. Ob decided that they were going back home, but in the middle of the road he turns the car around and went straight to the capital building for sight-seeing. With everything that has happened, Ob decided that he wanted to live after all, so he could take care of Summer just as May had wanted them to do from the start. The next morning Summer smelled coffee and breakfast. Things were better and Mays garden was growing, Cletus read from one of the handouts that they brought back from the trip they took looking for the spiritualist. Suddenly they felt the brush of wind and they all smiled at each other knowing exactly that May was setting everything free.
Biography:
Rylant, C. (1992). Missing May. New York, NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books
My Impression:
Just like Sarah, Plain and Tall its a very sad story that only people who has love one that are gone can truly understand. I can relate to this story because I also miss my dear father, although I wasn't left alone like Summer, I understand how she feels knowing that not one close relative would take her in like May did. It's difficult when your partner for life leaves you, especially when it unexpected like how May passed. Ob seeing how strong his wife was felt awful and lifeless after she was gone, so he became weak and didn't want to do anything. I believe that Ob believing that May was around him showed that she wanted him to be strong for Summer. Although he was giving up, her spirit encouraged him to be strong, and to continue living so he could be there for Summer, especially when they had so much things that they had planned and wanted to give her because they had no child of their own. It was also good that they had a young and good neighbor Cletus that also helped them both out a lot. Example: My husband and I are very close and love each other very much. We do a lot of things together, as a human being I think about things like what if my husband passes, what am I going to do without him. To tell you the truth, I don't think I can handle it, I would be just like Ob. I would probably want to give up also, but we have the good lord that gives us strength to go on. It's our choice to make it our not, and I would also be like Ob and get better to help our children out.
Professional Review:
| Publishers Weekly
( February 03, 1992; 9780531059968 ) |
|
| This short novel is a study of grief--chiefly, that felt by Summer after her foster mother's sudden death, but also her sorrow at witnessing the grief of Ob, her foster father--she realizes that she herself may not be reason enough for him to go on living. And for several months it seems as if he may not in fact go on, until Summer and Ob take a short car trip that somehow transforms their lives. In a direct, matter-of-fact voice occasionally laced with irony and wry humor, Summer articulates many discerning insights about sorrow and loss. The reader remains a distant observer of her emotions, however--perhaps because the novel begins after May's death, making her a less immediate figure, perhaps because Summer's perceptions are quite sophisticated, even adult. And the novel's emotional turning point is difficult to grasp, either verbally or intuitively: all Summer, and we, know is that ``something happened to Ob'' to make him embrace life fully again. Ages 11-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved | |
| (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved |
Review:
Use in Library Setting:
I would use this book in the library as a essay writing. Each child will write an essay about how they feel when a love one passes. Discuss with children the importance of love and dying so children to have a better understanding.
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