"Missing May"- Cynthia Rylant

This is a realistic chapter book. Missing May is about a young girl named Summer who was orphaned at the age of 6 and her aunt May and uncle Ob came from West Virginia and adopted her. They took her back to their trailer in the mountains. They did not have a lot to offer Summer but she loved them with all of her heart. When May suddenly died Ob and Summer were devastated. Ob was having a harder time than Summer with May's death. Ob began to see visions of what he thinks was May's spirit. He was so consumed with trying to find May's spirit again that he did not take his responsibilities as Summer's guardian seriously. Then Cletus one of Summer's classmates began to hang around with Ob and believed all of Ob's sightings. Finally Ob decided that he was going to try just one more time to find May's spirit and when he couldn't he was devastated. Summer became so worried about Ob and she thought that he was going to die to because he missed May so much. Finally on the car ride home Ob snapped out of his depression and realized that Summer needed him and that he did have a reason to live.
I thought that this was a great story because it showed the cycles that people go through when someone they love dies. It also shows how important it is to have loved ones around you when you are going through a difficult time. I would use this in my classroom by having the students to related this story to themselves by writing about a difficult time in their life and who they had around them to help them through the difficult time and what that person did to help.
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