The Relatives Came

by Cynthia Rylant, Stephen Gammell (Illustrator)

In a rainbow-colored station wagon that smelled like a real car, the relatives came. When they arrived, they hugged and hugged from the kitchen to the front room. All summer they tended the garden and ate up all the strawberries and melons. They plucked banjos and strummed guitars.
When they finally had to leave, they were sad, but not for long. They all knew they would be together next summer.

Genres: Picture Books, Family, Childrens, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Summer, Humor

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

An author of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for children and young adults as well as an author and author/illustrator of picture books for children, Cynthia Rylant is recognized as a gifted writer who has contributed memorably to several genres of juvenile literature. A prolific author who often bases her works on her own background, especially on her childhood in the West Virginia mountains, she is the creator of contemporary novels and historical fiction for young adults, middle-grade fiction and fantasy, lyrical prose poems, beginning readers, collections of short stories, volumes of poetry and verse, books of prayers and blessings, two autobiographies, and a biography of three well-known children's writers; several volumes of the author's fiction and picture books are published in series, including the popular "Henry and Mudge" easy readers about a small boy and his very large dog.

Rylant is perhaps most well known as a novelist. Characteristically, she portrays introspective, compassionate young people who live in rural settings or in small towns and who tend to be set apart from their peers.

from bookrags.com

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely simple story of a family from Virginia piling into a car and going a ways to see family for an extended stay. There are lots of hugs and more hugs and lots of food. People are sleeping on the floor and there is plenty of fun to be had.

This reminds me of our family reunions. Each year we did this kind of thing for both sides of our extended family. We loved it. They are some good memories.

The artwork is unique and it has that feel of chaos that comes from having so many people together. It also feels like summer. It’s a borderline beginning book.

This resonated with both kids. They do stuff like this each summer on both sides of their family. They began talking about the lake house we are going to stay at this July. It was exciting. The niece gave this 3 stars and the nephew gave this 4 stars.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this sweet story about a group of demonstrative relatives visiting family in the summer. It has an old-fashioned feel and lots of great details in both the storytelling and the illustrations. Cynthia Rylant is one of my favorites and I appreciated all the details in the illustrations that added so much to the story. Rylant has such a way of putting things. I loved, for example, the family all sleeping on the floor together, and how it was kind of hard to sleep with all that extra breathing around ;-) The illustrations are nice, but sometimes I wished I could tell more easily which folks were "the relatives" vs. the family they visited--though maybe that was the point, it was all just one big happy jumbled family. I can't help but think of Diane Goode and Cynthia Rylant teaming up on "When I Was Young in the Mountains" and wishing Goode had illustrated this, too--but that's just because I'm a huge Goode fan ;-)

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I am too much of an introvert, and maybe I am also not used to having lots and lots of relatives living close enough by to come visiting en masse and to descend almost like a quasi invasion (and that such a scenario would certainly be and feel totally traumatic and horrid). So yes indeed, every time I am reading Cynthia Rylant’s presented text for her 1995 picture book The Relatives Came and I am looking at Stephen Gammell’s frenetic and for my eyes really much too busy and buzzing illustrations (and of far far too many people in one group, in one place and at one time) all I can personally think of doing (if this were actually happening with my own family) would be to escape, would be to find a large stash of books and then hide myself away quietly reading, not talking (or at least not talking all that much) until those visiting family members were gone, until they had ALL gotten into their vehicle or vehicles and left.

For emotionally speaking, Cynthia Rylant’s words and Stephen Gammell’s artwork for The Relatives Came, they make both my adult self and especially my inner child feel majorly overwhelmed and overly stimulated both textually and illustratively and to such an extent that the combination of text and images in The Relatives Came just weirds me out and also makes me incredibly happy that the majority of my extended family members actually live in Europe and will therefore hopefully not come to see me in the massive group that Cynthia Rylant describes and Stephen Gammell illustrates in The Relatives Came. And while I do understand that many readers seem to really have enjoyed The Relatives Came, for me, this was and remains a book that absolutely and totally makes me feel like hiding, where both Cynthia Rylant’s words and Stephen Gammell’s pictures just really are overly much for me and for my introverted self.

Therefore, both personally and with regard to how I have emotionally reacted to The Relatives Came, I really cannot and will not even remotely consider rating The Relatives Came with more than two stars, although I do feel a trifle guilty at making my review for The Relatives Came basically all about me. But honestly, I also cannot really post that I have enjoyed Cynthia Rylant’s words and Stephen Gammell’s pictures in The Relatives Came when they both have made me feel majorly uncomfortable and not at all charmed.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: From School Library Journal
The title of Rylant's exuberant tale is an understatement, for when "those relatives" came, they came en masse and they came for an extended stay. Their anticipation at seeing kin during their long, long drive and finally hugging them "against their wrinkled Virginia clothes" set the tone for this welcome family reunion, a visit that never wears thin. The relatives are depicted as a support system to help a fatherless family with all the things that need to be done in and around their house. In down-to-earth language that harbors strong emotion, Rylant recounts the festive celebration of the relatives' stay and the ensuing sadness when they depart. The relatives in question are a large rural brood, depicted, in Gammell's joyous color pencil drawings, as running the gamut from porcine to scrawny, old to young and rowdy to silent. In pictures of this group hugging, eating and sleeping, the unspoken closeness of the unnamed relatives can be felt.

Theme: Family

Curricular Use: Read aloud.

Level: Ages 4-8

Illustration: Large and highly supportive.

[NS Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story. It is a about a large family who live in two different places. They come to visit each other once a year. The author starts out the book describing one family (from Virgina) packing up their things and piling into a car together to drive all day and night to see the other part of their family. Once they arrive they are so estatic to see each other that they can't stop hugging or talking with each other. It talks about how they make room to house both families. The auther describes the different things the families help each other with and how they help enhance each others lives.

I loved this book because I think it does a good job of explaining a family that covers a lot of different categories. They are big families, but all the things they do together are normal things that kids can relate to (sharing beds, meals, talking in small groups, playing and laughing). In today's world many people may feel like they are being inconvenienced when family is staying with them. This author made it seem like it was a delight and that both the host family and the visiting family were lucky to have each other. When I read this book to my students this week they not only thought it was hilarious but they were also able to relate in many different ways.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book! It is one I have read and reread. I love the warm and happy reunion of family...it reminds me a great deal of our annual visits from AZ (where we lived) to Utah (where my maternal grandparents lived). Or even of family gatherings at my paternal grandparents' home. We lived very close to my paternal grandparents but some of my aunts, uncles and cousins didn't and so when they would come to visit, we would all gather at my grandparents to visit and hug and play. (But we wouldn't stay there to sleep, although those visiting would.). It makes me nostalgic.

Things I love: I love the humor and warmth conveyed in the illustrations. I love the description of them sleeping, with arms draped across each other and that "It was different, going to sleep with all that new breathing in the house." Rylant has a way with words, expressing a great deal in just a few well placed words. Another example: "You'd have to go through at least four different hugs to get from the kitchen to the front room. Those relatives!"

This is a personal favorite that never fails to delight me.

I have also used it to model how students might write personal narratives.

[Tatevik · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this perfect book, the author is our beloved Cynthia Rylant, didn’t know the illustrator but I am already in love with his works.

The relatives from Virginia visit their other relatives. It’s a family reunion where the house is packed with so many people you have to hug four times to get out of kitchen.

This book was so heartwarming I wanted to be part of this craziness.

[Alex Baugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The excitement of an anticipated visit from relatives living far away is almost of summertime tradition and Rylant understands this completely. Driving from Virginia in an old station wagon with an ice chest full of pop and bologna sandwiches, a carload of relatives drive all day and night to arrive at their destination, where they are heartily welcomed by…their relatives. After lots of hugs and even a few tears, the relatives go inside the house, welcomed with a big family style feast. And they stay, for weeks, helping out in the garden and fixing things and sleeping wherever there was spot. Then it was time to pack the ice chest and return to Virginia. The relatives missed their relatives, but they also knew, they would visit with each other again next summer. This has been a favorite in my family since my Kiddo was little and there was a lots of relative visiting back and forth, and all so reminiscent of this book. In fact, I’ve never read it to a child who didn’t have relative stories to add to our discussion. They usually love the illustrations of the family meal and the sleeping arrangements, even if that isn’t their experience. Gammell’s jolly color pencil illustrations done in a colorful summertime palette of bright colors add so much to the whimsy and fun of the text. This book came out in 1986, but it still holds up well for today’s readers.

[Chris Go · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found out about this book from Anita Silvey's Children's Book-a-Day Almanac -- over a year ago! But as the impending doom of my relatives' visit approaches, I thought it was time to check it out from the library, and so placed it on hold. I'm very glad I did, even though I am not sure how helpful it will be in my situation. It is still nice to know that such families are out there enjoying the company of one another.

In "The Relatives Came" the cousins from Virginia pack themselves into their rainbow colored station wagon at 4am and drive straight through to the next evening when they arrive at their relatives' home on the other side of the mountain. Everyone piles out of the car, and it is nothing but hugging, eating, and talking for the next several weeks when they return to Virginia to pick their grapes.

The illustrations by Stephen Gammell are soft yet full of detail. They show some of the truth of what happens when family gathers: the food that drops on the floor, too many people in a bed, and even pets getting into the potato salad. I especially loved the image of the family trying to sleep in one room (gravity seems to be defied).

This book won a Caldecott Honor. It is definitely a must read for the next time your relatives come a calling.

[Lissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminds of when I was little and we would go on trips to visit family, and we always left early in the morning. You can feel the anticipation of getting to the place and the love you feel once you get there. Everyone helps each other by fixing things, and tending to the garden. When the relatives left the house was quiet and empty, everyone had gotten used to the crowd of people, but vacations have to end. The illustrations are happy and bring more to the story, so much going on in each picture. I like how the car knocked over the mailbox, loses luggage, and bumps into the gate, makes the story comical.


Learning Experience:
This is a great learning experience for children to learn some geography. Have children find out where some of their relatives live and then take a map and have the children see if they can locate where on the map they live. Depending on age they might need help, afterwords you can discuss items, such as, what state the relatives lives in, how far/close they live to you, even how long it would take to drive, fly, or even walk.

[Rachel Kinney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read The Relatives Came for the realistic/contemporary book. The Relatives Came is about a family who has family members that travel to visit and stay for the whole summer. The story has a nice rhythm when reading it. I love the pictures and the way they make the families seem up beat and chaotic. When the relatives arrive, they hug and hug and hug until they go inside and hug some more. Then they sleep all over each other and the floor. I feel like this book is a very realistic representation of what it would be like to have so much family come to visit for an entire summer, it would be very chaotic and crowded. Then finally the relatives leave after they have eaten all the melons and strawberries and promise to return next summer.

[Agnė · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 out of 5
The colorful and comical artwork not only illustrates the story but also expands it:



The Relatives Came captures the joys of a big family reunion perfectly: all the hugging, talking, eating and slightly uncomfortable sleeping arrangements, as well as the emptiness of the house when the relatives finally leave. Ahh, I wish my relatives came...

[Ginny · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first time I heard this book, I was in a class about using literature in the classroom, and our professor read it aloud to us. The lively illustrations enhance the story about relatives coming to visit, and it brings to mind my own childhood memories of visiting distant family. I like to read this book with my children at the open and close of summer vacation especially. It captures the anticipation of visiting loved ones and the satisfaction found in returning home.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the message about family reunions and cousins playing with each other. We love getting our extended family together for these very reasons.

[Brandie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this in Kindergarten today and loved the illustrations -- no wonder it's a Caldecott book. The story itself was not that great, though.

[Megan Denney · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Relatives Came is a story about a family who packs up their station wagon from Virginia to visit relatives. It talks about how long they drove as well as the different scenery they saw on their way down. The relatives hugged each other for hours when they got their and then the hugging was followed by a big supper. The relatives weren't particular about where they slept. The relatives also helped while they stayed for weeks on ends. After a long visit, the relatives packed up their car and drove back to Virginia and once they returned they all dreamt about the next summer.

I would definitely use this book in my classroom. The book has a great story line that keeps young readers intrigued to find out what happens on the family's trip to visit relatives. Also, the illustrations in the book are full of color and fun.

A teaching idea for this book would be to use it for a connections lesson. Students will be able to connect to themselves as most have visited relatives or had relatives visit them.

[Linda Lipko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thus far I've loved everything this author writes, and this book is no exception.

When the relatives from down there in Virginia come up north to visit for a few weeks in the summer, there is delight, joy, hugging, lots of food, and plentiful laughter.

So often in real life we know of situations where it is good to see relatives, but only for a small amount of time. Rylant captures a slower time of summer -- a time of sunshine, watermelon eating, fiddles and bangos to be played -- and days and nights that beg to never end.



The illustrations by Stephen Gammell are filled with two-page spreads of laughter, food, bare foot adults and children, picnic blankets and family pets.

There is joy in this book that sings right off the pages!

[Anne Hawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a child we used to pack up our old Studebaker with a luggage box on the top and drive all day from Virginia to Saltillo, Mississippi. I could almost believe that Cynthia Rylant was writing about us. She has every aspect of our visit in this book...even the "breathing." The visit doesn't include things like visiting Disney World, it is about hugging and fixing things and eating and all the other things that people who love each other and haven't seen each other for a year do. People are sleeping end to end on the floor, eating in shifts, pinching cheeks and just being with each other. The illustrations are superb and the story are perfect. I've bought this book for my cousins and my library. Everyone should have childhood memories like this.

[June · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this celebration of family. I use to show the filmstrip, when we did those during story time. However, my group at story time was just as entranced with the book. (Though the illustrations of the moon were a huge hit with one boy.)7/11/12

Used in story time again this year. 6/26/13

Used in story time, but the crowd was a bit young. I guess I should have gone with One Summer Day 6/9/15

Used with a PreK 4 class and they seemed entranced, one asked if we could read it again.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my all time favorite books. It should be found in every classroom library. It tells the story of a very memorable visit from some relatives. Stephen Gammell's Caldecott Honor winning pictures are vibrant and whimsical and give a feeling of fun to the story. The pictures by themselves could tell the story, but Cynthia Rylant's descriptive language makes you feel like you are there. You can really imagine all the hugging, eating and extra breathing in the house. I think this story will resonate with many of our students. They are always excited to tell you when someone is coming for a visit from out of town.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been reading-and rereading-The Relatives Came repeatedly over the past week. Cynthia Rylant's prose is like simple poetry both lyrical and humorous. It has been a pleasant release from the stress of the holidays. I've read a number of other similar books as well by other authors this week but this was the one that "worked" for me.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lyrical, rollicking celebration of big family get togethers.

[Felicia Tidwell taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having family that visits can be either good or bad but at the end of the day they are still family.

[Camdyn Dahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is great if you need to read some thing about what you are thankful for

[Suzanne Manners · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this story, one family is making a trip to visit another. It is told from the perspective of a family member on the receiving end of the visit, referring to the visitors as the relatives.
The artwork is illustrated with light shading using colored pencils of cool and warm colors. Overall the combination of the value and mixture of hues, gives the pictures a joyful mood. On closer examination, the artist’s use of color extends the text, by allowing the reader to imagine related scenes that aren’t part of the story. One example of an imagined extension results from examining the multicolored station wagon that has a red roof, yellow body, and green fenders. When looking over several traveling scenes, we see a snapped mail box post, and a collision with a white picket fence. You may assume the vehicle had been damaged from prior fender benders and was put together with miscellaneous body parts, collected from a salvage yard. The driver of the wagon might be considered reckless, or just anxious to see family again. It is easy to see that road conditions are poor. The road looks like a red-clay country road, as it winds its way up the mountain. The curved roads allow the artist to draw the station wagon in two or more places within the same scene. This causes the reader to follow the vehicle, the dominate object, as it climbs the winding road uphill. Along the road the station wagon is drawn leaning with the wheels in the air, in fact they never touch the ground. This gives us the impression that the family is experiencing a bumpy ride. Splotches of brown and red colors, intended to represent dirt, surround the wheels reinforcing the idea of a bumpy dirt road. Also behind the multicolored wagon are splotches of red, green, and yellow. Maybe the road has deep potholes, and those bumps are hard enough to knock the paint off. Maybe the car’s paint job was not professionally done. Judging by the family’s appearance (sort of ‘hillbilly’) they may have painted it themselves, not being able to afford a good paint job. As they hit the fence on arrival, the hood pops open and the luggage ties come loose, as suitcases fly off. You can see the brown silhouette of the family, represented by small round shapes, crunched in the front part of the wagon as they are jolted forward in the crash.
The author uses object dominance by placing the waiting children in the forefront of the arrival scene. They are pointing and waving as they run towards the relatives’ station wagon. The reader’s attention is directed to the chaotic scene, and one boy runs so fast to meet them, he either has lost a red sneaker, or didn’t have time to put on both shoes in his effort to first meet the family. Later, towards the end of the story, there is a scene where the family says goodbye in their pajamas. If you look closely you can see a single red sneaker lying in the grass. It is little details such as this that help the reader analyze the character traits. The owner of the sneaker seems to be careless and forgetful.
One particular scene reminded me of my childhood; when we traveled many miles from our home in Virginia to visit my grandparents in North Carolina. The text mentions that on the way the relatives saw “strange houses and different mountains.” We are told from the beginning of the story that they left their home in Virginia, and after looking back the house they left behind had a couple of steps to a front porch, and the road only seemed slightly hilly. In comparison the strange houses were perched above higher hills, mountains, and on the edge of a cliff. There are MANY steps spiraling up to the front porches.
Stephen Gammell’s work is full of expression. As mentioned earlier about the joyful mood, the characters certainly are happy. All of them seem to be smiling in every scene, except for the boys who were getting haircuts. The sleeping scene identifies the story’s narrator as the little girl in the forefront, sitting up awake. She talks about “all the new breathing in the house.” We can almost hear the snoring taking place by several relatives drawn with their mouths open.
As the relatives return home “driving all day long and into the night,” the colors change. The station wagon leaves a warm scene with the hint of sunlight at the top of the page, and heads into a darker scene with blue/purple skies, and the full moon above. We see beams of light, shining from the car’s headlights, shining wider as they disperse into the night. As they reach their home in Virginia, the sun is seen rising on the horizon, showing how long it took them to make it home. I also noticed that the moon was full when they left, and full again upon their return. During the story, it is mentioned that “they stayed for weeks and weeks.” I guess the artwork brings the story full circle and it can be taken for granted that the relatives visited for a whole month. I wish my family had that much time to visit, but with our busy schedules we are lucky to see each other for a weekend every couple of years. It was different when I was a child, life moved slower it seems, and we actually spent time with relatives (aunts, uncles, and numerous cousins). I really loved this book!

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

First sentence: It was in the summer of the year when the relatives came. They came up from Virginia. They left when their grapes were nearly purple enough to pick, but not quite.

Premise/plot: The Relatives Came is a celebration of family, and, in part a celebration of summer. In this picture book, relatives come to visit, come to stay for a few weeks of FUN and LAUGHTER.

My thoughts: I enjoyed this one very much. It's a joyous book: a celebration of the good life.

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. Then it was into the house and so much laughing and shining faces and hugging in the doorways. You'd have to go through at least four different hugs to get from the kitchen to the front room. Those relatives!

Rylant is a wonderful author. The Relatives Came earned a Caldecott Honor. The illustrations are well worth a closer look. So much detail squeezed in that adds to the narrative.

Text: 4 out of 5
Illustrations: 4 out of 5
Total: 8 out of 10

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a childhood favorite of mine, but I’m sad to admit that the story isn’t as good as I remember. I think I actually imagined more of a story in my head based on the illustrations which really fleshed out what is otherwise very bland text. It’s probably this very quality - that the illustrations tell stories not conveyed by the text - that caused it to win a Caldecott Honor in the first place. I love the crowded scenes filled with loving, active relatives, and even as an adult, I still like looking over the illustrations, looking at all the details of their clothes, food, tools, and musical instruments. I am also fond of the recurring image of the grapes growing in Virginia, which is used to indicate how much time has passed while the relatives have visited. It’s an especially nice touch that the last page of the book shows nothing more than a bunch of ripening grapes.

Read at Preschool Story Time on 9/6/13: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting story about a summertime visit by a group of relatives. The story has an older feel to it, a sense of a time gone by. It seems to be an idyllic reminiscence of a family visit in their childhood.

It's much different from most of the Cynthia Rylant books we've read, but it's a nice story and fun to read aloud.

This book was selected as one of the books for the May 2016- Caldecott Honors discussion at the Picture-Book Club in the Children's Books Group here at Goodreads.

[Tani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite, but my daughter enjoys pointing out the little details in the pictures, such as who is wearing socks and hats, and which toy truck is broken. She also keeps trying to say Virginia thanks to this book, though I can guarantee she has no idea what Virginia even is. 🤷‍♀️ Oh, and the grapes at the end must always be kissed.

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

We enjoyed a family reunion of sorts at our house this summer. It was so fun to have aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, in-laws, etc all together. This book captures the fun and joy of a big family gathering.