Amanda and Kara are cousins and best friends in an intertribal Native American family; but Kara's family leaves the city and moves back to the Rez, making both girls sad--but the summer reunion reminds them that they will always be cousins. - (Baker & Taylor)

Highlighting the ongoing impact of the 1950s Indian Relocation Act on Native families, this Native American story follows best-friend cousins as they discover that even though they are far apart, they will always be close. Simultaneous eBook. Illustrations. - (Baker & Taylor)

In this Native American story, Kara and Amanda are best-friend cousins. Then Kara leaves the city to move back to the Rez. Will their friendship stay the same?

Native creators Laurel Goodluck and Jonathan Nelson share a sweet picture book with the universal experience of family and friends moving away.

Kara and Amanda hate not being together. Then it's time for the family reunion on the Rez. Each girl worries that the other hasn't missed her. But once they reconnect, they realize that they are still forever cousins. This story highlights the ongoing impact of the 1950s Indian Relocation Act on Native families, even today.

This tender story about navigating change reminds readers that the power of friendship and family can bridge any distance. - (Random House, Inc.)

Laurel Goodluck writes picture books with modern Native themes. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Laurel comes from an intertribal family and is an enrolled Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation and Tsimshian tribal member. Laurel has degrees in psychology and community counseling and family studies. She lives in Albuquerque, NM, where they raised two children. 
 

Jonathan Nelson is a Navajo graphic designer, graphic artist, and illustrator. He is Kiiyaa'áanii (Towering House Clan) and Naakai Dine'é (Mexican Clan). Jonathan designs and creates art and illustrations with paints, pixels, and ballpoint pens. He lives outside Denver, Colorado, with his family. http://stg.jnelson.work/work - (Random House, Inc.)

Booklist Reviews

Cousins Amanda and Kara do everything together. They share secrets, dance in the powwow, and play with the dolls Magúu (Grandmother) made for them. But everything changes when Kara's family decides to move out of the city and back to the Rez. The girls miss one another terribly even though they talk on the phone and write each other postcards. Neither can wait for that summer's family reunion on the Rez, but when the cousins see each other at long last, Amanda and Kara feel shy and hesitant. Happily, their reticence is short lived, and, after confessing how much they've missed each other, they spend the rest of the reunion playing, dancing, and sharing stories. Nelson's digital cartoon illustrations nicely capture cultural details, subtly incorporating varying skin tones and fashion choices within the family and signaling differences between life in the city and on the Reservation. An informative author's note discusses the author's upbringing within an intertribal Native American family as well as the Indian Relocation Act of 1956. Grades K-3. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.