The Graves Family

The Graves Family

Patricia Polacco

Published by the Penguin Young Readers Group 2003 

Fantasy

34 Pages

The Graves Family is a story about an odd family that moves in the neighborhood over night. They paint the house blood red, so other people in the neighborhood are hesitant to talk to them. Two friends, Seth and Sarah, come across the boy living at the house by the name of Hieronumus; they call him Ronnie and all three of them start to hang out together. Ronnie's dad is a scientist, and his mom is a chef; he has four sisters that he babysits. The family keeps a lot of wild and strange animals and plants in their house. The family has issues fitting in wherever they live. They start to have trouble with living in their new neighborhood, but you'll have to read to story to find out how they resolve fitting in.

     The art is very traditional for a Patricia Polacco book; it follows the same simple drawing of realism, but his time, her stories has more elements of details, such as people in windows and elements in the background that you have to pay special attention to.

     I thought that I'd like this book when I picked it up, but I found the ending highly predictable. I didn't think it was a bad story; it just wasn't for me. I think this particular story would have been better if the author has someone else do her illustrations for this particular book.