Forever Cousins

Primary (Grades K-5)
This book is about a family, where some of its members move to the city. How two of the cousins who are very close are separated and forced to do fun things apart for the first time. But when they are able to finally reconnect they are unsure how to do it and if the other is still friends with them.
This book has an Authentic feel. As the author is pulling from her own experience to create this story. Even though this story is not about one specific tribe or community it is about her story and her families mix of traditions.

Brief Summary:
The story follows two best-friend cousins, Kara and Amanda, whose close relationship is tested when Kara's family moves from the city back to the reservation ("the Rez"). Despite missing each other all year, the girls worry their bond may have changed. They happily reconnect during a family reunion, proving their connection is permanent, while also subtly highlighting the lasting effects of historical policies like the 1950s Indian Relocation Act on Native families.

The book directly and matter-of-factly addresses the theme of removal and displacement by framing the distance between the two cousins as a real-life consequence of the historical Indian Relocation Act of 1956. The author's note provides further context on this show more policy, which incentivized Native Americans to move from reservations to major cities, resulting in family separations.

Ages: 4-7 show less

This was a great story. When I opened the pages, I was not expecting to hear a US indigenous story. This is about to cousins who live in the city, and one moves back to the “rez”. Will they still be friends? will they still like each other? The story is approachable to all with feelings of being “away” from family. What is interesting is the information in the back where the author talks about the Indian Relocation Act of 1956 which was pitched as a jobs act but was a way of assimilating native culture. This was a fantastic book both in story and education and I would be proud to put it on my library selves.

Age range would be maybe preschool to around 2 or 3rd grade. Forever Cousins follows two Indigenous cousins as they grow up in different places but stay deeply connected through family, traditions, and shared identity. I would use this book in my class to help students explore how family can include extended relatives and strong cultural ties. Also to discuss how families can live in different places but still stay connected. I think that this book does a good job at highlighting that connection isn’t limited by distance. Maybe some students moved this school year and are struggling with the distance, so this book would be good to have in a classroom

Appropriate for grades 1-2. Forever Cousins is a sweet book about two girl cousins who are best friends living in the city when one cousins family moves to live on a reservation. Forever Cousins has relevance because it describes what sort of changes or hardships indigenous peoples might be going through or still feeling the effects of because of how they were treated in the past. This book depicts an experience that many indigenous families may experience.

This book would be good for primary students. This book is "Forever Cousins" written by Lauren Goodluck, illustrated by Jonathan Nelson, and published in 2022. This book Is about two cousins that are super close but one of the families has to move to the reservation because of the Indian Reservation Act. They are super worried that they will grow apart because their family has always been super close and they will miss each other. When they have their reunion, they are still super close. I think this is a good book to introduce the Indian Relocation Act in a child-like way and to teach how it affected families that are typically very close to one another.

This book was so cute! it was about two cousins who had to live apart from one another but stayed connected throughout, when they saw each other again they were so happy and it was like they never left! This would be a great book for yunger kids like kinder-3rd grade. There is very little about Native Americans in this book, but there was never any bias, just a cute book that anyone can relate too!