Cousins

This book is about a young girl named Cammy who loves her grandmother Tut dearly-even though she's bedridden in a nursing home. She does not like her cousin Patty Ann because she is to pretty, too smart, and too perfect in every way and Cammy wish she would just plain disappear. Cammy is a happy girl until she learns that Patty Ann drowns saving another cousin. Only through the wisdom and love of her grandmother and the return of her estranged father is Cammy able to work her way through the guilt and grief and learn how to accept the reality that someday too, her beloved grandmother will die.

I liked this book because it teaches a valuable lesson. It teaches the lesson that you should never wish bad things on anyone because they just show more may come true.

I would incorporate this book into my classroom by getting my students to write their own review about how the story made them feel. I could also have them talk about a time they wished something bad would happen and it did and how it made them feel. show less

Cammy doesn't get along with her cousin Patty Ann who seems to be taking her friend, L.O.D. away. During an outdoor activity L.O.D. falls into the river and Patty Ann dives in to save her. Patty Ann manages to save L.O.D. but drowns in the attempt. Cammy blames herself, as she wished Patty Ann to go away, and is visited by Patty Ann in her nightmares. Patty Ann's mother's grief is excessive to the point of upsetting the whole community. Cammy's family rallies around her to help her out of her depression, which is also manifested in physical sickness. A visit from Cammy's grandmother, who is dying from old age, helps Cammy as Gram explains the place of death within life. A story set within Southern Black American culture.

This book was okay but just seemed very old and too detailed about death. I like how the family comes together and shows you a lesson to never wish bad things on people. It’s a good book to have and allow the kids to read and see what they learn from it.

*SPOILER* Cammy’s big family reunion is approaching when she meets second cousins Fractal and GiGi. Cammy’s world is turned upside down when she learns Fractal is her half-sister via her father.

hree cousins set out on an emotional journey over a summer, in which there is rivalry, deep hostility, and a death.
Death, cousins, grandmothers -- Juvenile fiction.

Hardcover... challenge