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Cynthia Rylant
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Missing May (Scholastic Gold) Paperback – June 1, 2004

by Cynthia Rylant (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 265 ratings
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  1. Newbery MedalWinner, 1993
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This critically acclaimed winner of the Newbery Medal joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. Includes exclusive bonus content.

Ever since May, Summer's aunt and good-as-a-mother for the past six years, died in the garden among her pole beans and carrots, life for Summer and her Uncle Ob has been as bleak as winter. Ob doesn't want to create his beautiful whirligigs anymore, and he and Summer have slipped into a sadness that they can't shake off. They need May in whatever form they can have her -- a message, a whisper, a sign that will tell them what to do next. When that sign comes, Summer with discover that she and Ob can keep missing May but still go on with their lives.A beloved classic about grief, gardens, and the enduring love of family.
Previous page
  1. Reading age
    9 - 12 years
  2. Print length
    128 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Grade level
    4 - 7
  5. Lexile measure
    980L
  6. Dimensions
    5.25 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches
  7. Publisher
    Scholastic Paperbacks
  8. Publication date
    June 1, 2004
  9. ISBN-10
    0439613833
  10. ISBN-13
    978-0439613835
  11. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Cynthia Rylant has written more than 100 books, including Dog Heaven, Cat Heaven, and the Newbery Medal-winning novel Missing May. She lives with her pets in Oregon.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scholastic Paperbacks; Reissue edition (June 1, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0439613833
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0439613835
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 9 - 12 years
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 980L
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 4 - 7
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.5 x 7.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 265 ratings

About the author

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Cynthia Rylant

Cynthia Rylant

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Cynthia Rylant is the author of numerous distinguished novels and picture books for young readers. In addition to her beginning-reader series: Henry and Mudge, Poppleton, and Mr. Putter and Tabby, as well as her Cobble Street Cousins early-chapter series, she is also the author of the Newbery Medal-winning Missing May, the Newbery Honor Book A Fine White Dust, and two Caldecott Honor-winning picture books.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
265 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

John
5.0 out of 5 stars good book
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2024
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Love this book for the heartfelt emotions that it brings out and ways to cope.
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Alpha Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars 89 pages is all Rylant needed to move me
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2012
Verified Purchase
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's death, Summer felt loved and safe. She had found a home with Ob and May, and not a moment too soon; their trailer was filled to the brim with love - May cooked big breakfasts and used to tell Summer she was the best little girl she ever did know. Ob makes whirligigs - but not the typical cartoon ones most people stick in their gardens to frighten away birds. Ob's whirligigs are works of art - he makes fire whirligigs and storm whirligigs, and spirit ones too.

But if there's one thing Summer knows, it's that everything good will eventually come to an end.

May has just died - keeled over while tending to her beloved garden. Now there's just Ob and Summer left behind, and Summer can already feel her uncle pulling away . . . he doesn't wait with her for the bus anymore, doesn't cook big breakfasts like May used to and he has gotten to sitting around in his pajamas all day long.

In the midst of their grief, Summer's classmate (and resident oddball) Cletus takes to popping round for a visit. Cletus used to collect chip wrappers, now he is obsessed with photos. He and Ob get along like a house on fire; Summer just wishes she wasn't so jealous about seeing Ob light up when Cletus comes round with his suitcase of pictures, like he's helping to ease Ob's grief when Summer can't seem to do anything.

And then Ob gets a visit from May's spirit, and Summer knows what she must do to keep Ob here with the living, where she needs him.

`Missing May' was the 1992 highly-acclaimed middle-grade novel from Cynthia Rylant. The book won the coveted Newbery Medal and Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.

I've become a little bit obsessed with reading Newberry and Printz books. These are two of the biggest children's book awards in the US, and lately I have been gorging on winning and honour books recognized by these prestigious organizations. It started with `Vera Dietz', progressed with `Frankie Landau-Banks' and hit a high-point with `The First Part Last'. I especially love perusing past and recent nominee lists because I find they are full of books I would have otherwise never heard of. Take Cynthia Rylant's incredible `Missing May', for example. An old book, first published in 1992, and very short (89 pages). But `Missing May' caught my eye when I perused an old list of Newberry winners, and I am so glad I went hunting for a copy to purchase online. . . because in just 89-pages, Rylant has written a heartbreakingly beautiful book that is exquisite for its honesty and simplicity.

`Missing May' is a book about grief. We meet Summer shortly after her aunt May has died, leaving behind Summer and her old uncle Ob in their trailer on a hill which now feels filled to the brim with grief. As Ob sinks further and further into his grief and loneliness, Summer becomes concerned that she won't be enough to keep Ob on this earth. Summer becomes particularly worried when Ob claims to have received a visit from May's spirit, and becomes hell-bent on tracking down her wayward soul. Helping in the spiritual mission is Summer's classmate Cletus; a strange young boy who touts around a suitcase full of photos, and does not find Ob's obsession with May's spirit the least bit strange.

But while Summer tries to help Ob find May's spirit, and gets to know Cletus better, she seems to be forgetting about her own grief. . .

Rylant's novel is beautiful. I read this on the train, and I got a few odd looks from people when they saw how thin the book was (with clearly a children's front cover). I bet those same commuters found it especially odd when tears welled up in my eyes and I quietly sniffled through the last pages. That's the thing about `Missing May' - it may be only 89-pages, but Rylant has filled her book with such achingly precise observations of grief and missing, that 89 pages is all she needed to move me. I felt the same way about Angela Johnson's (Printz-winning) novel `The First Part Last' - "it takes a true maestro to move a reader to tears with a word-count that some authors spend on first chapters alone."

Summer's story is told with the utmost patience and care by Rylant, who has written a wise young narrator in Summer. She is a young girl who has had more than her fair share of heartache - from losing her mother to feeling rejected by nearly all her relatives . . . all, except Ob and May. Summer's aunt and uncle were the best kind of people - they didn't have much, but what they did have they gave to Summer - all their love, care and attention was heaped on her, until it almost felt like all the pain she had previously gone through was worth it, to end up in that trailer on the hill with May's big hugs and Ob's whirligigs.

Everybody should read Cynthia Rylant's `Missing May' - it doesn't matter if you're young or old, this is a book which beautifully and painfully communicates the ache of missing and the hopelessness of grief. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
8 people found this helpful
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LindaFaith
4.0 out of 5 stars This is a good book for preteens and teens who are grieving the ...
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2017
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This is a good book for preteens and teens who are grieving the loss of a loved one. In the novel, a teenager who has been raised by her grandparents is crushed when her grandmother dies. A neighbor boy ends up helping both the girl and her grandfather get through the grieving process and come out on the other side.
3 people found this helpful
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Courtnay Zeitler
5.0 out of 5 stars My 6th graders BEG for another chapter!
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2022
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At the beginning of the school year, I told my 6th grade ELA students that there are children's books, and then there are miracles like Missing May. And they had every right to hear the miracle of what good storytelling and beautiful writing is. They cannot get enough, and every couple days I reward them with a chapter. My school is smackdab in the middle of proud & bruised Appalachia; my little listeners know trauma and how love might heal it when they hear it. Thank you, Ms. Rylant. I came to you by way of Dog Heaven, but I stayed for May.
3 people found this helpful
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Paul Beaird
5.0 out of 5 stars Teaches about caring during life's natural disasters, like death
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2008
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When May dies, she leaves her husband who is totally lost and her niece who wants to brign him back to an interest in life, or she'll have no one in the world. But, it is an utterly nerdy boy, whom she doesn't like, who keeps coming up with oddball ideas one of which finally does bring uncle back to interest in life. You get to see the perspective of the girl, since she tells the story, and finally that of May who has passed away. All the way through, you not only get to see what it means to care about people who are under stress, but you get to see what it means to be the one cared for. And, in the process, you get to discover what your own feelings of loyalty to life are. This story seemed to live more for my 10-yo daughter because I read it to her and there were parts at which I could not keep from crying. Daughter seeing Papa cry added to our father/daughter bonding. Very moving, touching, profound book. Don't miss it.
8 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Darling book!!
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2022
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This book is well written in a positive voice. I love it!!
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Ohioan
3.0 out of 5 stars Something Is Missing
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2012
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This book was a Newbery winner, and Cynthia Rylant is an excellent writer, but for me this book kind of falls flat. Something -- some rich element of plot, perhaps -- is missing. The story, about twelve-year-old Summer, who lives with her Aunt May and Uncle Ob, centers around how much Summer and Ob miss May, who has died just before the start of the novel. The story is warm and heartfelt, the characters sympathetic as they learn to cope with their loss, but the book seems not substantial enough to stand as a novel.
2 people found this helpful
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MeS
5.0 out of 5 stars Heartwarming; heart-wrenching; unique;
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2020
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Orphan Summer is taken in by Uncle Ob and Aunt May after years of being shuffled around between uncaring relatives. May and Ob love Summer and she blossoms until May dies and Ob and Summer have to learn to live without May
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
hapret
4.0 out of 5 stars 中盤～終盤でおもしろくなる
Reviewed in Japan on November 21, 2015
Verified Purchase
英語はかなりくだけたもので、人によっては読みづらいかもしれません。
単語レベルは易しいです。

個人的には、中盤から終盤にかけておもしろくなりました。
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はるちゃん
3.0 out of 5 stars 本文のあとのAfter Wordsが面白かったです
Reviewed in Japan on August 19, 2008
Verified Purchase
主人公Summerの母親代わりだったやさしい叔母Mayの死後、立ち直れない叔父のObと、友達のCletusと三人でMayの魂に会いに行くというスピリチュアルなところに惹かれて購入しましたが、お話はもっと現実的な内面の話でした。悲しみを乗り越えるために行動を起こしてそれぞれに何かを感じ、心を解放して涙し　乗り越えるといったようなことが描かれていると思います。英文は少し読み取りにくい感じがしましたので評価は３です。家族を亡くした悲しみから立ち直るという話では「Wenny has wings」があまりにも良かったので比べてしまうと、内容的にもやはり３です。英語表現では大変役立つ文体や単語があり参考になり良かったです。また、本文のあとのAfter Wordshaは内容が大変面白く、良かったです！
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