Missing May-Chapter Book- Realistic or Historical Fiction

Coping with the death of a loved one is never an easy thing to do no matter how old you are or who you have right there beside you.  Missing May by Cynthia Rylant takes its reader through a journey of experiencing what loosing a mother figure and wife might be like for the loving family living in Deep Water, West Virginia.  When a young girl Summer and Ob, who she considers her father loose their beloved May they are put through a long journey of grieving.  In this book the reader sees the way both Summer and Ob cope with the death of May and all the challenges they go through along the way.  After the death of May, Summer believes it’s her job to take over the house chores and starts to take care of Ob and his needs.  With things being hard enough to handle as such a young child Summer sees the pain that Ob is going through each day and wonders how much longer she will have with him before he to "fly’s away".  Then when they both need a miracle the most a young boy Cletus comes along full of wonder and joy.  Cletus becomes a known face around the house and soon brings hope to getting in touch with May once again through a well know bat lady.  With hopes high the three travel to find the bat lady, but are soon turned away with the news that she has passed away.  As the three begin their journey back to Deep Water, Summer and Cletus know that Ob will never be able to move past Mays death. Until they are surprised by a quick turn around in the car.  Ob tells them "were turning this buggy around" and with that they all began to live a new life always remembering their beloved May and the great things she had taught them.  This book really hit home for me because when my Mama Hattie (grandma) died I remember thinking that my family and I would never be able to move on, but we all had each other and never gave up on what we love so much about being such a close family.  I would use this book to talk to children about life and try to see if students could find ways to relate to it. Death is something that everybody has or will go through and finding ways to cope with it in your own way is very important.  This book shows that everybody has their own way of coping with things whether it is death or not, and it shows students that being different and individual like Cletus is a good thing.  This book really shows students that how important it is to just be you!