I haven't made much time in my life for reading these days. Home improvement projects seem to be keeping my hours filled. But the other day I did take a few minutes to sit down with this 28 page picture book, The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant (illustrated by Stephen Gammell).Why'd I grab this book off my personal library shelf? Well, a friend of mine was having a huge family gathering to celebrate two birthdays and the end of summer. She had so much planning and cleaning to get the place ready for the relatives and the big shindig. Her preparations made the title of this book come to mind.
But I think this is a whole different kind of story.
This book is a joyful look at the chaos and love the came together when the relatives from Virginia came to stay for a while. The trip was long, and lasted all day. But once the relatives arrived,
"Then it was hugging time. Talk about hugging! Those relatives just passed us all around their car, pulling us against their wrinkled Virginia clothes, crying sometimes. They hugged us for hours."
The illustrations in this award-winning (Caldecott Honor) book are just wonderful. To me, they look like colored pencil drawings, but it might be watercolor. The images are joyful with lots of little details to make you giggle, like the girl feeding her hot dog to the dog, or the grandpa spilling part of his dinner on the baby's head.
And unlike my friend's situation, where she had to get the house ready for the guests, these relatives came to help out.
"They helped us tend the garden and they fixed any broken things they could find."The relatives stayed for weeks and weeks, and when they had to go home, they were missed. I wouldn't mind having a family like that.
But then, this is a work of fiction.
Highly recommended!
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