Dozens of Cousins
Written by Shutta Crum
Illustrated by David Catrow
“We fill up on beastie delights – on catching frogs and crawdads, on double-dog dares crossing balancing logs, and on talks the water mumbles as it tumbles along.” Most of us have experienced a family reunion where the adults enjoy each other’s company while the children are allowed a bit of freedom to run and roam and have “beastie delights”. At least until the neighbors complain. Fortunately for the children in this story, Grandma and Grandpa still remember the joys of childhood. They smooth things over with the neighbors and then join the grandkids for a soak in the creek.
The wonderful illustrations by David Catrow (http://www.catrow.com/ ) bring back memories of those family get-togethers with such clarity that you almost feel like you are there again. The subtle changes in the sky as the story progresses take you from early morning to late night where, “Oh, we are happy ogres, my cousins and I – our hearts full, our tummies plump, and our heads stuffed with dreams of next year’s beastie family reunion”.
The ‘AD’ notation with the lexile score indicates that this book is ‘Adult Directed’ which just means it should be read to children around third grade age. This would be a great read aloud as it provides many opportunities for mini-lessons on topics such as adjectives, synonyms and possibly even literary license (“When big brothers wrestle us down and drag us to the pump to wash for dinner, we eat them up – They’re yummy beastie food, too!”). The increased vocabulary and opportunities to determine meaning from context and pictures put this book high on the list of must haves for teachers who understand the importance of improving both reading skills and comprehension.
As a storyteller (and librarian), Shutta Crum understands the importance of gaining and maintaining children’s attention. She does a fabulous job with that in this book. A list of her other books, as well as contact/speaking information, can be found on her website ( http://blog.shutta.com/ ).
Title: Dozens of Cousins- Author: Shutta Crum
- Illustrator: David Catrow
- Publisher: Clarion Books
- Reviewer: Sandi Waymire
- hardcover: 32 pages
- ISBN: 978-0-618-15874-4
- Genre: contemporary fiction
- Lexile score: 1090 AD