Missing May Analysis

Deep Water in West Virginia isn't exactly the most exciting place in the world. It's the small town where Uncle Ob, Aunt May, and Summer all live in their little rusty trailer, and there definitely...

The entirety of the story is told from Summer's point of view, so we only get to see things as they happen to her. Because of this, we get to watch as Summer grows up, we follow over her shoulder a...

Young Adult LiteratureEven though the theme is a bit heavy (hello, death and prolonged grief), Missing May is written for a young audience. The writing is simple and straightforward, and Summer pro...

Look, we're going to be honest—Summer isn't the most happy-go-lucky of narrators. She's not the kind of twelve-year-old who's going to tell you about her My Little Pony collection or her latest c...

Since Missing May is a book set in the backwoods of West Virginia and narrated by a twelve-year-old girl, it makes sense that the writing style is easy, conversational, and doesn't always follow al...

In Missing May, the characters are all in a state of yearning. The title makes sense because Summer and Uncle Ob are actually always missing May; they just want to have her back with them. And this...

The ending of Missing May is the first time we actually get to hear (or read) Aunt May's voice. After Summer and Uncle Ob give into their grief and cry it out, Summer goes to sleep and she has this...

The writing in Missing May is pretty straightforward and can be tackled by most young readers with ease. But there's a reason it takes a little bit more work to get through the book—the subject m...

Goodbye, Aunt May When the book opens up, we find out that Summer (the narrator) has just lost her beloved Aunt May. Summer is very sad, but her Uncle Ob is faring even worse—he misses Aunt May s...

As a kid, Cynthia Rylant was practically obsessed with Archie's comic books. Do you think she was Team Veronica or Team Betty? (Source.) According to Cynthia Rylant, almost all of her books are s...

Sex isn't really a thing in Missing May at all, even though a couple of the main characters are middle schoolers who are probably just reaching puberty. No matter—that's just not the point of thi...