Product Description

Although Cammy loves her grandmother, her mother, and her big brother, she just cannot seem to see past the flaws in her coiusins. By the author of If People Could Fly. Reprint. H. K. AB.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #145657 in Books
• Published on: 1992-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Amazon.com Review
"'Gram?' Cammy leaned closer. Gram Tut's eyes were still closed. 'You're not dead yet, are you?' There was a long moment in which Cammy held her breath. But then, Tut gave a grin; said weakly, 'Fooled ya!' and shot her eyes wide open." Eleven-year-old Cammy and her Gram Tut have a special thing going. In fact, things are pretty good with her beautiful mother, Maylene, and her 16-year-old brother, Andrew, too. But dealing with her cousin Patty Ann is a whole different story. She is pretty--no, gorgeous--smart, spoiled, and she called Gram Tut "about dead." How could Cammy be expected to like her? She wishes Patty Ann would disappear off the face of the earth.

What if you wished something like that and it came true? It happens to Cammy, and it changes everything. As she speculates even before the tragedy, "...a day that was all blue sky could turn over dark and dangerous while she was playing a game with the other campers, or just sitting on a bench. It could happen that fast. Change." Fast-paced, immediate, and true, Cousins is a powerful, dramatic read. Winner of the Newbery Medal for M.C. Higgins, the Great, Virginia Hamilton masterfully brings the agonizing emotions of adolescence to life like few can. (Ages 9 to 12) --Karin Snelson

From Publishers Weekly
A tragedy forces Cammy to confront ambivalent feelings about two very different cousins; PW noted that this "elegant, stirring tapestry of family life . . . features strong characterizations and incisive writing." Ages 9-13.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8-- Cammy feels things strongly, whether it's the immeasurable love she has for her Gram Tut, or the jealousy and anger she feels for her perfect, sometimes patronizing cousin Patty Ann. But while those intense emotions make her a strong-willed, feisty girl, they also cause her a great deal of pain when Patty Ann drowns saving another cousin. Only through the wisdom and love of Gram 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 Gram will die. Hamilton allows readers to experience the wide-ranging and sometimes lightning-quick changes of emotion of an adolescent girl through a partially stream-of-consciousness style and, at times, abrupt, staccato thoughts. The third-person narrative focuses on Cammy, and through her eyes readers see the effects of her relationships with various family members. While the drowning scene takes on a surrealistic, slow-motion quality that may haunt readers as much as it does Cammy, this is not a story that depends on action to advance the plot. A scene that involves Patty Ann's brother, while revealing some information about her home life and Cammy's feeling for her own brother, does not seem as essential to the story, and there are times when some of Cammy's observations are extraneous. Still, it is Cammy's introspection, doubts, and sensitivity, as well as Hamilton's skill in vividly describing both the physical and the intangible aspects of life, that form the core of this thoughtful story. --Susan Schuller, Milwaukee Public Library
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Excellent book!
This is one of the most immediate, powerful books I've read in a long time. Sad story, but loaded with humor and warmth. Virginia Hamilton is a master, no question!

The Book kept me interested!!!!!
When the most saddest part of the book came I was so interested I couldn't put the book down.

Sad
This book was good it was sad that the cousin that tried so hard to be accepted was lost forever in the end. I feel this book has a lot to say to young readers in terms of relationships. People are not always going to be around forever so it is best to love them where they are at.