But I’ll Be Back Again by Cynthia Rylant

Cynthia Rylant’s autobiography reveals a lot of feelings portrayed by some of the characters in her books. She grew up in a broken home, because her mother and Cynthia Rylant left her father when she was four years of age due to his alcoholism. Although he communicated with her with letters, she did not see him much at all after leaving him. He died of sickness four years later without saying goodbye to her. Rylant’s mother left her in the care of Cynthia Rylant’s grandparents for four years when she was off going to school for nursing. Rylant was cared for by grandparents, aunts, and uncles during this time. Her autobiography revealed the devastating emotional trauma of the loss of her father and temporarily her mother. Her experiences with loss fueled her writing, and she found writing to be a vehicle for coping with her sad childhood experiences of loss. Her grandparents, aunts, and uncles must have been loving caretakers for Rylant to emanate such a positive outlook on her life as she recalls memories of her childhood. She seems to cheerfully recall giggles with her aunts and fond memories of relationships with peers when she was growing up. She relates “crushes” she had had with some boys and her hero, Robert Kennedy. Her memories seemed to have spoken to her clearly to encourage her to want to become a writer. She notices that writing has given her the power to change things I could not change as a child.
Several of the books by Cynthia Rylant illustrate themes of loss and finding oneself: Missing May, A Fine White Dust, The Islander, I Had Seen Castles, and Waiting to Waltz. In all of these books Rylant develops the characters experiences with peers and families in a positive light. She often shows her protagonists as experiencing a significant loss and dealing with it in a steadfast way. This is evident in Missing May and in The Islander. Summer, the protagonist relates her inner struggle with caring for her uncle Ob and missing her Aunt May. Rylant also struggled with wondering as a child if her father had ever tried to communicate with her after his death. Her book Missing May describes such an experience as Summer relates missing May. The Islander related a story about a young boy who had lost his mother and father at an early age and had to learn to fit in to a community on an island while living with his grandfather. Rylant also relates in her autobiography her salvation experience in church when she was a young adolescent. Her struggles with her relationship with God become clear through the protagonist, Pete in A Fine White Dust as he pours out his emotions and soul describing his newfound commitment to God through his salvation experience from an encounter with an evangelist at his local church. I started to read Rylant’s A Heavenly Village, but I did not finish reading it. In that book I remember several implications that may relate to Rylant’s faith in God. Rylant stated in her autobiography that she chose to remember friends and places that communicated to her peacefulness and love. Most of her books seem to be illuminated with peaceful plots and caring characters. These traits are clear in many of her picture books: Thimbleberry, The Blue Hill Meadows, Little Whistle, The Relatives Came, Waiting to Waltz, and The Van Gogh Cafe.
Rylant seems to have found herself through writing, and she has shared her gift of storytelling in bringing to life her own stories to which so many of us can relate.