The Relatives Came

Rating:
Summary: A vivid, lively book for kids
Review: The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Stephen Gammell is a lively children's book about a family and the relatives who came to visit them. It shows what type of things the family had to go through when the relatives showed up. There was hugging, eating, and breathing for many weeks, after which the relatives pack up and leave. They miss each other after they leave. The Relatives Came helps kids understand the importance of family. They realize that while the family may not be together; they are missed by the relatives. The font and illustration is both crazy and crooked. This helps show how packing for vacation is frantic. Gammell draws the pictures with vivid colors, and the pictures look as if they were drawn with color pencils. This helps keep the child attracted to the book because it is very eye-appealing.

Rating:
Summary: "The Relatives Came" Full of Color and Excitement
Review: The relatives from Virginia packed themselves and their belongings into the typical old station wagon. They left their ripening grapes and headed up North to spend a wonderful summer with the rest of their family in "The Relatives Came". This Caldecott award winner depicts a typical summer of any close-knit American family. Stephen Gammel's bright array of colors and impressionist landscape reminds me of Vincent Van Gogh's work. The illustrations are full of life and excitement. These amazing illustrations bring out new meaning in Rylant's text. The great details of the illustrations are saturated with a vast rainbow of colors. The people's faces are so full of animation that the reader can feel their emotions. Gammel's detailed style almost tells the story without the text. There were so many detailed things in each illustration, that there were stories with in each illustration itself. While the family eats their big supper together, Gammel realistically illustrates a typical casual dinner scene. The food is falling of the serving plates, a baby accidentally knocks over a dish, and even the dog is begging for food. The illustrations are showing the typical chaos that will occur at a big family reunion, while Rylant's text subtly takes the reader through the course of the story. There was no mention in the text about anything that was going on in the illustration, besides the fact that they were eating. This allows the readers to interpret each scene in their own way. "The Relatives Came" epitomizes exactly what Sonia Landes described in her 1985 article, "Picture Books as Literature", Children's Literature Quarterly. She mentions how "one role of pictures in a picture book is to enhance meaning of the story by illustrating the words." I think that the illustrations carry the entire story. Rylant's text would not be entertaining on its own. Landes also claims that a "good picture book artist [will] go well beyond that by inventing and developing additional story material." Gammel clearly invented and developed additional story material in addition to the text in "The Relatives Came". One example is that the text plainly states, "...traveled up all night and finally they pulled into our yard." The picture shows the car full of people clumsily crashing into their relatives' fence. The reader would have never gotten that idea just from the words. Readers will begin to miss their aunts, uncles, and cousins when they read "The Relatives Came". This book is truly a reminder on how much fun it is to spend time with family all together. Cynthia Rylant and Stephen Gammel undoubtedly deserve their Caldecott honor. They created the perfect combination of a nice story that everyone can relate to, with illustrations detailed in vibrant color, animation, and a background that looked like it was painted by Van Gogh himself.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: The story is one we can all "relate" to. We all look forward to relatives coming to visit. This hilarious book is well written and superbly illustrated. You will find something new in the pictures again and again. Adults love this book, too. Children will read it over and over again.

Rating:
Summary: Award Winning Book Wins My Heart
Review: This book reminds me so much of my family gatherings...even though it's set in a different part of the country. I love it, and have sent it to my sisters and their families as well. It's a Caldecott award winning book, one that should be read by generations of families. Who wants to stay at the Marriott when you can sleep on the floors and sofas at your cousins house? Family....isn't it about time?

Rating:
Summary: Challenged Book
Review: This book was selected to be included on a banned book list. While taking Children's Literature at West Virginia State College I was given the opportunity from Mr. Samples to explore the possible reasons why this book was challenged. After unlimited amount of time researching this book I never found a concrete answer why. Also, I did not find who had selected the book to be on the list. I did however have my own opinion of the possible reason. One of the illustrations in the book showed two cousins sleeping together, each were of the opposite sex. This would be the only "flaw" this book would have, overall this is a great book. I would highly recommend using this book with your students in a classroom. This book celebrates the meaning of family with hugs and more hugs. Please enjoy reading and re-reading The Relatives Came.

Rating:
Summary: Challenged Book
Review: This book was selected to be included on a banned book list. While taking Children's Literature at West Virginia State College I was given the opportunity from Mr. Samples to explore the possible reasons why this book was challenged. After unlimited amount of time researching this book I never found a concrete answer why. Also, I did not find who had selected the book to be on the list. I did however have my own opinion of the possible reason. One of the illustrations in the book showed two cousins sleeping together, each were of the opposite sex. This would be the only "flaw" this book would have, overall this is a great book. I would highly recommend using this book with your students in a classroom. This book celebrates the meaning of family with hugs and more hugs. Please enjoy reading and re-reading The Relatives Came.

Rating:
Summary: Hug after hug after hug!
Review: This children's book is a joyous and hilarious visit by a very large family to relatives in another State. Although everything gets very hectic, when the relatives finally leave, everyone seems to miss the visitors right away and already are looking forward to the next visit. I think that every family can relate to this story. The book was illustrated by Stephen Gammell and it was a 1986 Caldecott Honor book (that is, a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustrations in a book for children.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Memory of a Family Reunion
Review: This is a delightful and sweet story of a family traveling to visit relatives. The illustrations really bring the book to life. This is a great summer story for any child, but is especially fun and perfect for my 5 year old son who does better with new situations if he is able to have a sort of preview of what it is going to be like. We originally checked this book out from the library but have purchased a copy to keep. He loves to read the book and look at our photos from our family reunion trip.

Rating:
Summary: Families have more fun!
Review: This is a funny story about a funny family. They are so happy to see one another. They share everything... even breathing. A wonderful summer read that will make you want them to come back again and again.

Rating:
Summary: the relatives came
Review: This is a great book for kids ages 3-9. It is a good book for young people because I think it teaches kids no matter what all ways love your family and they will love you back. I read this for English class and if I have a choice to read it again I would. It is about a family that comes from another state to visit their relatives, they get there hug for hours on end and eat dinner then go to bed. There's not enough beds for everyone so each person has a arm or leg on them but, they don't mind at all because there with family. I loved the book personally and I think kids would too. After the age 10 or so they might think the book is childish, any age 9 and under I think would love it.