The Aunt in Our Home

I’m totally confused. I think there is a deep meaning in Angela Johnson’s The Aunt in Our Home, but I just cannot figure it out for the life of me. It was different to see a book of Johnson’s with a white person on the cover because she usually writes about black families. This story is told from a little black girl’s point of view-that one day, “The Aunt” comes to stay with her family, and The Aunt (always capitalized throughout the story) does all these different fun activities with the two little girls in the family. But sometimes, The Aunt gets sad and the mom tells the two little girls it is because The Aunt misses her home, and the pictures show her sitting around alone looking depressed, and that is how the story ends. I keep trying to come up with predictions on what is going on here, but the only thing I can think of is that The Aunt is some sort of live-in nanny for the family and two little girls?
I’m not sure what students in elementary school would think about this one. The pictures are indeed awesome-it looks like they were oil painted on canvas. They are very interesting to look at, but the story is not as interesting to read and understand, so I don’t think this is a book I would chose to read aloud to my class.