Poetry Friday - A review of Some kind of love

In summertime, many families get together to reconnect and catch up. My family members have always been spread all over the world, so this was never something we did. This coming winter my cousin is getting married in California, and many of my family members will be travelling long distances to celebrate this event with her. It will be the first time many of us will be meeting the new babies, and I am really looking forward to it.

Today's poetry book is about an annual family reunion that a family share. Though the gathering is not fancy, it is an event that is special for everyone.

Some kind of love: A family reunion in poems

Traci Dant

Illustrated by Eric Velasquez

Poetry Picture Book

For ages 6 to 8

Marshall Cavendish, 978-0-7614-5559-2

Every summer, in “purple lilac time,” the members of Grandma’s family leave their homes and drive to Missouri for a family reunion. Without fail, no matter what is happening in their lives, the aunts, uncles, and cousins come to spend some precious time together, and when the members of the family arrive there is “an avalanche of hello / hugs and kisses.”

   No one stays at a motel. Instead, everyone is given a place to sleep at one of the aunt’s houses. No one minds having to share a bed. No one minds having to sleep on a sofa or on the floor. All that matters is that they are all together.

   The family members go fishing, and the happiness that they are share is so great that even when Joley eats the dough that is supposed to be used for bait, he doesn’t get scolded. The love that the family members have for each other seems to have a magical quality because somehow Aunt Lois’s little house is able to accommodate one hundred family members who come together for a fish fry that evening.

   This same magic makes the family stories so funny that even Daddy, who works so hard all the time, laughs as if he hasn’t a care in the world. It makes cousins, even the ones you don’t know each other well, great friends.

   In this heart-warming and unique picture book, Traci Dant uses a series of poems to tell the story of an annual family reunion, an event that brings people together for shared good times. Throughout the book we are reminded that “some kind of love” must be present that is making this reunion full of love, goodwill, friendship, and good spirits. Readers will find themselves wishing that they could join the members of this family who are able to create something so precious even though their homes are small and their means are modest.