The Relatives Came

By: Cynthia Rylant

Illustrated: Stephen Gammell

This is another story with family as a theme. This book has such a heart-warming feel to it. It reminds me of summer and winter. It reminds me of winter because my family gets together for the holidays and there's always this magic in the air. This story also reminds me of summer because it is light and airy. I can tell the characters are country, or from the country. They're from Virginia and there's definitely some country places in VA. I love the pages when the relatives arrive. Everyone's hugging and kids are running around outside in their socks. The family looks so happy. They eat together, play together, and visit.

One observation I had was about the text. We mentioned this before in class when we talked about another book. Rylant will write a paragraph and the text consists of only one sentence. I, maybe like some others, would see this and say, Those are run-on sentences. It seems to work in this text. On one page, as the relatives were pulling up in front of the house where they were visiting, it stated, "So they drank up all their pop and ate up all their crackers and traveled up all those miles until finally they pulled into our yard." I imagine a child ecstatically and excitedly telling this story to a friend or a teacher. Don't we "speak" in run-on sentences?

I will enjoy rereading this story and also reading it to my class. Spring break is looming and this provides a great time for relatives to come and visit. My students will really be able to relate.