Some Kind of
Love
Full
Text Review(s)
In this moving tribute, 15 poems describe the joy of
one African-American family's annual reunion weekend. It begins with the words
of Grandma: "Always come home/Come home so I can see your faces./Your brown,
your cream, your peach,/your purple, your midnight faces. Come." The poems take
readers through the anticipation of everyone's arrival, crowded sleeping
arrangements, fishing, telling stories, and more until the time to say goodbye.
Velasquez depicts this warm, inviting party in oils, and the illustrations are
rich with color and emotion. Each selection begins by calling attention to the
love that binds this family. A rich celebration of togetherness.
–
School
Library Journal, May 2010
All opening with the line, "Must be some kind of
love," lyrical yet plainspoken poems describe a large African-American
family’s reunion in Missouri, while Velasquez’s expressive oils make
the family members feel alive. Though there’s not much sleeping room
("We sleep four boys to a bed. Head to foot and head to foot"), each
activity affirms the spirit of love and mutual understanding. Cousins fish with
cane poles, Aunt Lois’s two-bedroom house becomes a "space large
enough to hold 100 people for a fish fry," stories are shared and
connections strengthened. Even good-byes are cause for celebratory hugs and
kisses, driving home the message about unbreakable ties.
"Must be some kind of love." That is the
refrain that starts off each moving poem in this picture book about an annual
African American family reunion, told in free verse from the viewpoint of a
nine-year-old boy. Handsome oil paintings show the "giant sleepover,"
with group pictures of multiple generations, as well as close-ups of cousins
sharing bikes, eating fried chicken, and sleeping four boys to a bed, "head
to foot and head to foot." There is never a hint of tension among family
members, but the celebration is rooted in painful history. The families reunite
now "because our families / were once sold and broken . . . because we are
now free to come together." Family stories help with today’s tough
times, and an expressive picture shows how the sharing makes the boy’s
"work-hard Daddy laugh like / he’ll never have to janitor all night
and farm all day again." More powerful moments include a scene in church
and a group photo shoot, which collects everyone together.
–
Booklist,
April 1, 2010
