Dozens of Cousins

PreS-Gr 3—An unnamed child tells of the glorious day with "beastie" cousins at a family reunion, "running with hearts hungry for hugs and tummies hungry for treats." Politeness is thrown to the wind as the cousins make themselves at home, bursting through doors and leaping into the creek, playing wild games, and annoying older siblings. They spit watermelon seeds and grab at fireflies, until they finally sleep wherever they happen to fall in the relative-packed house. Crum's text is energetically lyrical: "We are drummers of song and magicians of laughter./Our hair, spiked with mud,/proclaims us astounding." Catrow's warts-and-all illustration style is especially fitting here; those squint-eyed mugs are just right on cousins shaking their fannies and throwing underwear out of the windows with wild abandon. Author and illustrator together have captured the manic energy of cousins unleashed.—Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD