‘Forever’ friends
Cousins learn to connect while apart in this delightful children’s picture book
Kara and Amanda are like a lot of little cousins in extended families. They simply can’t get enough of the hours they spend together.
They color with crayons together.
They agree sunflowers are beautiful.
They enjoy dancing together at powwows.
They think chokecherry jam on toast is the tastiest.
Kate and Amanda don’t live far from each other in the city.
But their relationship is about to change. The many activities they’ve shared are going to be interrupted. Kara and her family are moving to the reservation.
Kara and Amanda are the main characters in this delightful children’s picture book “Forever Cousins” by first-time Albuquerque author Laurel Goodluck.
It’s a warm story about the value of family, friendship, cultural traditions and community, and about learning how children can emotionally deal with change.
Naturally, the separation isn’t easy for the girls. Kara’s mom tries to soothe her daughter’s feelings. She tells Kara that she and Amanda can look forward to getting together next summer.
For a short while after their separation, the cousins are upset about not spending so much time with each other.
Amanda shows her displeasure by telling her doll that she won’t dance at powwows without Kara. Meanwhile, Kara shows her disappointment by rejecting an offer of fry bread and tightly hugging her doll.
Then we see the girls slowly adjusting. Their mood brightens when they talk on the phone, telling each other about the colorful, new lunch boxes they’ll be taking to school.
They will no doubt stay in touch during the school year.
With summer’s return Amanda and her parents drive two days to a family reunion at grandmother’s farm on the rez.
Each cousin wonders if the other will be happy to see her. Their shyness melts when Amanda’s brother Forrest playfully runs off with the girls’ dolls and the girls meet face-to-face.
Good things begin to happen to them when they reunite. They find joy playing tag, swimming in a lake and sharing secrets.
The girls don’t want the fun to end. But before Amanda returns to the city, the girls swap their dolls as a sign of love and that they are forever cousins.
The book brings in Native traditions. On the last day of the family reunion, a family ceremony welcomes a new baby into the fold with a Hidatsa name: “There is the scent of sweet grass and burning sage. There is the beat of the drum in an ancient song.”
Goodluck, the author, is an enrolled member of the Hidatsa, Arikara and Mandan nations and is a citizen of the Tsimshian Nation.
“The inspiration for the story is based on my own childhood growing up in the (San Francisco) Bay Area,” she said. “I felt that way with my cousins, connected with them. We were an inter-tribal family.”
Helping that connection were dolls, stuffed animals or clothes her grandmother made for them.
A point Goodluck makes is the need for families to be good support systems for communities whether they’re living in the city or on the rez.
An underlying element to the book is explained in an extensive author’s note about the federal Indian Relocation Act of 1956.
The law was designed to give job opportunities in urban areas for Native Americans. Goodluck said it helped her parents. Her father trained as a mechanic and her mom as a school secretary.
However, she believes the law had harmful downsides. “Most people had a hard time with relocation and job training,” Goodluck said. “And it really was an attempt to assimilate (Native people) and take away more of our land.”
Parents, educators and librarians can also benefit from reading about the book’s multiple values, she said. The book is written for children ages 3 to 8, and can be applied to cousins regardless of their cultural background.
The illustrator of “Forever Cousins” is Jonathan Nelson, who is Navajo/Diné. Nelson’s graphic novel “The Wool of Jonesy” won an American Indian Library Association honor award.