Saturday Cousins

by Rebecca Caudill, Nancy Woltemate (Illustrator)

Get ready for a fun-filled summer in the countryside with the Tuttle children. Every Saturday the six Tuttle cousins share wonderful times as they hunt for dinosaur footprints, listen to a talking machine, and make ice cream. There's always something new to do. Even the adults share in the fun, especially Uncle Dave, who teaches Rich how to wiggle his ears. Family outings with the Tuttle cousins are full of delight and unexpected pleasures. Come on along!

Genres: Childrens, Fiction

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

American's children writer, as well as teacher and editor, known for her Appalachian fiction. Caudill graduated from Wesleyan College and, in 1922, received her master's degree from Vanderbilt University. She taught English in high school and college, and worked briefly as an editor. She moved to Urbana, Illinois, when she married James Ayars in 1931.

Caudill's book, Tree of Freedom, was a Newbery Honor Book in 1950. A Pocketful of Cricket was a Caldecott Honor Book.

The schoolchildren of her adopted state of Illinois vote each year on their favorite book. The winning book is given the Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award (RCYRBA) named in honor of Caudill and her contributions to Appalachian literature.

Reviews

[Luisa Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright will adore this read too!

Two sets of cousins visit each other every Saturday, taking turns at spending the night at each other's house. Full of such delightful scenes of children running around on a farm, stopping by the train tracks, investigating a huge animal print in the road and sliding down long staircases on a homemade quilt, this will warm every parent's and child's heart.

Sweet illustrations throughout too!

Ages: 5 - 12

Cleanliness: mentions of fairies and magic; believing that magical things can happen - this thought is not too prevalent.

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[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 STARS
We love Caudill's Fairchild Family series. I was excited to be able to get this stand-alone novel from ILL but was somewhat disappointed. It has the same sweet set-up with children enjoying a gentler, slower-paced lifestyle, siblings and cousins play happily together, they enjoy long walks in the countryside, playing with animals, etc. This one is set a bit later than Fairchild Family, I believe, or perhaps it's just the proximity to town that makes it a bit more "advanced" in terms of technology -- the children watch trains go by the junction, someone in town owns an automobile, a store owner has a "talking machine" (gramophone) -- these are all quite marvelous. It's such a lovely idea to think of being able to walk with your siblings to your cousins' house, across lovely countryside, and have great fun together, "sledding" down the stairs on an old quilt or making up stories at bedtime, and I love how they alternate houses each week. However, I personally didn't feel as much of a connection with the characters here as I did in Fairchild Family. Also, a few parts were a bit problematic for modern sensibilities, like the excitement over circus animals or seeing "Siamese Twins" and then making some "Siamese Twin" pants (three legged pants) that two of the girls wear all around. Eeek. Anyway, there's still a lot of good in this book but I believe it's rather hard to find and I wouldn't recommend anyone go out of their way to track it down or spend much money on it. There's a reason Fairchild Family is back in print and this one isn't.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you don't know this book is set in Tennessee, the stories won't tell you. I don't know why Caudill does this; no background, very little description of characters beyond names and ages, scrappy narration. She's apparently famous enough that there's a literary award named after her that's still going strong, but so far I am underwhelmed. Oh, the scraps we're given are sweet and wholesome enough, but the characters are mostly undeveloped, and the big buildup to visiting Mr and Mrs Smith falls rather flat. The author could have written an excellent account of that visit, but she chose to limit her characters to visiting only each other. So disappointing.

Whoever compared these to the Little House books was on something.

[Clara Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this little story of two groups of cousins who alternate weekends at each others' homes. The story is set in the early 1900's and I really enjoyed the feel of this time period. Something about it reminded me of my childhood growing up unfettered in the country. I loved all the small adventures and the ways that the children were able to make their own fun and find interesting things to do without any technology. A beautiful little book that preserves the quiet joys of a simpler time!

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5* rounded up because while I didn't enjoy reading this aloud my 12 year old gives it 4* and my 6 yr old gave it 5 hearts. I think it may be cute for younger independent reading but it was choppy and repetitive as a read aloud. A little dated with overly idealistic children who happily do chores and don't bicker. Cute idea but doesn't have the charm of other read alouds we've done.

[Manola · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are huge fans of Rebecca Caudill’s Happy Little Family (Fairchild) series. This book is definitely as lovely, slow paced and wholesome as any of the Fairchild books, but perhaps is better suited to a first or second grader reading on their own— it didn’t hold my attention very well.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Age: 4+
Content Considerations: None

Another light, family-friendly tale by Rebecca Caudill. While I didn't like the book as much as I have several of her others, my children were still delighted by it and thoroughly enjoyed every chapter.

[Lisa Mcbroom · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are two sets of cousins. One set lives in the city. One lives in the country. Every Saturday, the country cousins take the train and go visit the city cousins. I loved the scene where the cousins slid down the stairs in a homemade quilt.