Missing May
by Cynthia Rylant
The opening for, Missing May, “When May died,” absolutely grabs the attention of the reader and immediately sets the tone for the novel. The author, Cynthia Rylant, creates, in my opinion, brilliant character names, such as: Summer,
The main character, Summer, was orphaned and living with distant relatives when she was six years old, until custody was given to her elderly aunt and uncle that lived in West Virginia, Ob and May, who visited the family she was staying with and decided to adopt her. Summer was twelve years old when her Aunt May died. Summer was amazed at the bond and love that her aunt and uncle had for her, and is frightened by Uncle Ob’s reaction and methods of mourning. When Uncle Ob sensed contact from May, Summer was willing to do whatever she thought may help him with his grief, despite her true feelings about the methods, such as religious ceremonies.
The way the novel fosters the grief that Summer was burdened with is amazing. Summer mother passing is described so beautifully by the twelve year old that I felt as it that if I could have her way of thinking, I could mourn less emotionally with losses of loved ones. I was stunned at the fact that a children’s book could invoke feelings that strongly in an adult. I loved the descriptions of the characters and could easily visualize the stringy, greasy hair in Cletus’s face. I was scared to think to strongly of
The novel surprisingly made me feel such emotion. I was enticed from the first word to the last, and could not put the book down until I had finished it in its entirety. I had to continually remind myself that it was a children’s novel, rather than an adult’s.
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