The Graves Family Goes Camping

By Patricia Polacco

Philomel Books, 2005

I really like Polacco’s books, so I am always interested to read one of hers that I haven’t before. The Graves Family Goes Camping is a very long, but very entertaining picture book. It tells the story of spiders, specimens and a fire-breathing dragon. All that one family encounters on their summer camping trip. But when the dragon traps them in, they must find a way to escape. When they do, the dragon follows them home! Polacco’s creative mind and illustrations allow for a really funny book as well, using language that children will love.

A read-aloud of this book would be perfect for any age in elementary school; just some scaffolding would be needed for younger students. Older students could read it on their own. Due to its length, it would be a good book to break up into multiple read alouds. It would also be a great book to read around Halloween because of all the creatures and critters that the family works with.