Here come the cousins

A small, red-spectacled girl waits impatiently on the front porch until the much-anticipated moment arrives: her cousins are here! Seven cousins and their adults arrive at Grandpa's beach house for their annual summer visit, and the motley crew wastes no time jumping into familiar delights. They stand in the pencil-marked doorway to see who's grown the most (our narrator never wins) and play rock-paper-scissors for the prize of the top bunk before clambering into their swimsuits. Beach mornings have the cousins "speckled with sea salt" and "striped with sunscreen," and Zweck's energetic illustrations display cousins of various ages, sizes, and skin tones splashing, digging, and snorkeling at the water's edge. After lunch, the cousins find refuge in the shade, "curled up like kittens in Grandpa's hammock" or "deep in dusty books from Grandpa's shelves." In the evenings, the family gathers for favorite stories and games beneath the stars. When summer ends, the countdown to next time begins. Hutchings's poetic storytelling and Zweck's vibrant mixed-media illustrations create a picture book teeming with familial love, happy activity, and the taste of salty ocean water. It captures the beauty of time with extended family: finding equal joy in the nostalgia of old times and the novelty of memories being made. grace mckinney beermannMarch/April 2026 p.49 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.