Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | EASY CRU | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | EASY CRU | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | EASY CRU | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
"We are wild and fierce. We do not wait for invitations." It's time for the annual family reunion, and the dozens of cousins are running wild like beasties. Like hungry ogres! They hug fluttering aunts and soft-spoken elders, play in the creek, shimmy up trees, take "double-dog dares," and devour "the sweet juiciness of the world" along with hot dogs and watermelon. Hilarious side stories unfold in Catrow's fantastically colorful, chaotic spreads that gambol and splash with comical caricatures of grinning kinfolk large and small. A lively, lyrical celebration of the sweet, sweet abandon of running amok among those who love you best.
Author Notes
Shutta Crum is a Kentucky-born children's book author and storyteller. She lives with her husband in Michigan. Visit her website at www.shuttacrum.com.
David Catrow is an editorial cartoonist and the illustrator of more than seventy children's books. He lives in Springfield, Ohio, with his wife and three dogs. Visit his website at www.catrow.com.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
An annual family reunion brings together a passel of carefree cousins in this joyful pairing of Crum's (Mine!) comically heroic verse with Catrow's (Have Fun, Molly Lou Mellon) equally rollicking pictures. Crum writes in first-person plural, praising the children's muddy, eager romping with language that wouldn't be out of place describing a Viking celebration after a successful season of marauding. "Oh, we are rowdy ogres," she writes. "We roar! We growl!/ We parade out back doors and leap over steps,/ rushing down to the secret grottoes of the creek." Catrow revels in the swampy setting, as wide-eyed, gap-toothed, rubber-limbed kids bound through the reeds and muck, even persuading their grandparents to cool their toes in the green water ("We put our beastie arms around their squishy middles and squeeeeeze"). Crum goes far beyond a simple appreciation of picnic fare to celebrate life itself: "We pile our plates high-a beastie feast-/ pack tight together, and fidget,/ longing to plunge our sharp teeth/ into the sweet juiciness of the world." A triumphant ode to family in all of its messy, quirky glory. Ages 4-8. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
A large, boisterous family gathers for a reunion. This lyrical, spirited ode, rich with summertime imagery, celebrates the joys of adventures shared by far-flung cousins running in barefoot packs. Catrow's quirky illustrations capture appropriately wild and grungy kids playing in creek waters, feasting on watermelon, and catching fireflies, among other moments that are at once universal and personal. (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Oh, we are rowdy ogres. When cousins or beasties get together at the family reunion, it's absolute chaos. Family members arrive, and there are hugs and hellos all around. But there is also mud to roll in and adventures to be had, so the kids are off and running. Moving en masse like a swarm of bugs, the dozens of cousins rule the roost, noisily leaving behind a path of destruction. There's also food, piled high on the picnic table, and watermelon seeds to spit. Crum's high-energy verse captures the pure, unadulterated joy of cousins convened, who can run free and uninhibited, finally dropping like flies at the end of the day. And Catrow sure captures the quirky crew. In his signature style, there are also roly-poly, pinched-cheek grandmas; babies in sagging diapers; and, of course, a dog, thrilled to be along for the ride. It's an exuberant and comfortable time with family, and many kids will relate. A spirited read-aloud for summertime fun, to be paired with Cynthia Rylant's The Relatives Came (1985).--Kelley, Ann Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
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 (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Reminiscent of Cynthia Rylant and Stephen Gammell's Caldecott Honor book, The Relatives Came (1993), Crum and Catrow's collaboration delivers a spirited, loving depiction of extended familial bonds. Jacket art squarely identifies the child cousins, rather than aunts, uncles, grandparents or other grown-ups, as the focus of this story about a joyous family reunion, as a bevy of kids races toward the right side of the cover, inviting readers to follow. Title-page art then brings readers back in time to the car trip to the reunion, but then the copyright and dedication pages mysteriously zoom in on restful hens. The story's beginning explains this artistic deviation as the chickens scatter with the exuberant arrival of carloads of family members and their descent on the homestead. Artistic embellishments such as this and the matter-of-fact inclusion of a multicultural cast of characters enhance the joyful text in which cousins mischievously romp through their time together under the patient and tolerant eyes of the adults who love them so. In this sense, the picture book as a whole (words and art) feels much more akin to Gammell's humorous, energetic art in The Relatives Came than to Rylant's nostalgic, bittersweet, moving text. The result is a seamless, though in comparison, perhaps less complex or powerful, treatment of family. An ebullient celebration of family. (Picture book. 3-6)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
