MISSING MAY

A gifted writer returns to one of her favorite themes—love—in this case, as it can inform and transform grief.

After her mother's death, Summer was handed from one unwilling relative to another, "treated like a homework assignment somebody was always having to do." At six, she was taken in by an elderly uncle and aunt. Ob had a game leg (WW II) and enjoyed creating unusual whirligigs; May liked gardening behind their West Virginia trailer. They loved each other with a deep and abiding love, wholeheartedly including Summer. Now, six years later, May has died. In a poetic, ruminative narrative, Summer recounts Ob's mounting depression, his growing conviction that May is still present, and their expedition to find "Miriam B. Conklin: Small Medium at Large." Meanwhile, they've been befriended by Cletus, an odd, bright boy in Summer's class; she doesn't especially value his company, but is intrigued by his vocabulary ("surreal"; "Renaissance Man") and his offhand characterization of her as a writer. The quest seems to fail—Reverend Conklin has died—but on the way home Ob finally puts aside his grief to take the two young people to the state capitol as promised: "Right out of the blue, he wanted to live again." Rylant reveals a great deal about her four characters, deftly dropping telling details from the past into her quiet story—including a glimpse of Summer, as seen by a girl in her class, "like some sad welfare case," a description the reader who has read her thoughts will know to be gloriously untrue.

A beautifully written, life-affirming book.