The Relatives Have Come by By Genia Connell

Link: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/lessonplan.jsp?id=216

The Relatives Have Come by Genia Connell is a delightful story to read to young children. Find a place on the bookselves for this treasure of a story. Children and adults both enjoy Stephen Gammell's signature pencil artwork. He beautifully captures the light-hearted joy of the two families and the simple pleasures that they share together. The relatives come from Virgina and have driven a long way to reach their family and stayed when "their grapes were nearly purple enough to pick."

Follow up:

The descriptions of how a crowed home feels with relatives that have filled the house is beautifully described when the author shares that they are full of hugs and tears. Children can relate to the descriptions and the artwork drives home how very much it is a "huggish sort of time" and also a time for lots of talk and eating, catching up and being together.

There are so many relatives visiting that most of them have to sleep on the floor but they don't mind because they are an easy-going crowd. They are also a good humoured and helpful crowd, working on the house and in the yard, fixing things that are broken, playing music for the whole family, and best of all just being there, spending time together.

It is always sad to see the relatives leave at the close of the story. The house feels too big and empty at "four in the morning" when they pull out in their crowded car to return to their home. Readers can relate to this "feeling" of how empty emotionally they feel after they are away from their own relatives left with memories that carry them until the next time The Relatives Come.