I've been reading lots of Cynthia Rylant books aloud to my youngest son (The Lighthouse Family series, and the High-Rise Private Eyes series). She has such a wonderful way to writing - wonderfully expressive vocabulary, caring relationships, success in the face of challenges, etc. You just feel warm inside reading them. The book jacket in one of those series mentions her award-winning books, including Missing May, so I grabbed it off the shelf when looking for audiobooks a few weeks back. I'm so glad I did! This is a tender story of loss, family, and love - finding one's way through grief. I'm not sure what age of child would enjoy it, though. It seems like it would have narrow appeal - or maybe I'm just overgeneralizing based on the readers in my house!

(my ears perked up when I heard the part about the 1000 piece puzzle of the Egyptian pyramids - brown piece after brown piece. She uses this again in one of the High Rise Private Eyes book! I wonder how many times she references her own work?)

The audiobook version was enjoyable - the reader's accent does not detract (not familiar enough with that region to know how authentic it might sound) and there are brief musical interludes at each chapter break that provide a nice transition without being intrusive.