21 Cousins

by Diane de Anda

Overview

Tall, short, big, small, athletic, artistic . . . cousins may look different and have different interests and abilities, but that just makes them one extraordinary family! From Maricela’s bilingual spelling skills to Mario’s tech whiz abilities, no two cousins are alike—and that’s just the way they like it. All the cousins are muy entusiasmados for the surprise at the end of their family gathering!

Diane de Anda cleverly highlights the beautiful diversity of Latino and mestizo families as readers are introduced to each cousin. Isabel Muñoz’s whimsical illustrations are filled with rich details, delivering a cornucopia of color for young readers. Featuring a mix of skin tones, personalities, and abilities, 21 Cousins is a delightful read that invites children to appreciate the rich heritage of Latino culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595729156
Publisher:	Star Bright Books, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/20/2021
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	620L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Diane de Anda is a professor emerita of social welfare at UCLA and a community voice on violence prevention and stress management among adolescents. She has written eight children’s books and edited four books on multicultural social work. Her work focuses on empowering Latino youth. Diane lives in Play del Rey, California. 21 Cousins is her first book with Star Bright Books.

Editorial Reviews

2021-03-17
De Anda and Muñoz introduce 21 first cousins, each vastly different from the next.

The sibling narrators describe the family as “mestizo,” with a makeup of “the different people and cultures in Mexico: Indian, Spanish, French, and others. This is the reason people in our family look different in many ways. But we are still one family.” Readers meet fair-skinned Elena, dark-skinned Enrique, Teresa with “milk-chocolate skin,” and the rest, ranged along a wide, colorful spectrum. One has Down syndrome; another uses a wheelchair. Each cousin varies in interests, hobbies, talents, and ages as well. There is an aspiring Olympic runner, baseball players, a gymnast, a college student, a drummer, and a dancer. Readers who don’t pay attention to the title page may be surprised to discover the identities of the dual narrators, revealed to be grade schoolers Alejandro and Sofia at the end of the book. Muñoz’s clean illustrations present the cousins in settings that reflect their interests, but they do not interact until a final group portrait with Baby Cristina, the 22nd cousin. As is typical in many Latinx cultures, Spanish terms that describe cousins’ physical attributes—güera, morena, chata—are used as terms of endearment, familiarity, and identification. It must be noted that those terms today are occasionally met with some resistance, as they often point back to origins in colorism and racism.

Latinx readers with diverse families will appreciate seeing themselves within these pages. (Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews