Year of the Jungle by Suzanne Collins - OPTIONAL

Collins, Suzanne Year of the Jungle, illustrated by James Proimos.  PICTURE BOOK.  Scholastic Press, 2013.  Content: G (cartoon pictures of a rifle, helicopter, tank)

Suzy doesn’t understand why her Dad has to leave for Viet Nam for a year, or even where Viet Nam is, except that it is a jungle.  First she isn’t worried at all, then people start looking at her funny when she tells them where her dad is.  One day on T.V. she sees Viet Nam and the war and she gets very worried – especially when the postcards don’t come very often.  

Yes, this Suzanne Collins is the author of the Hunger Games.  Without dramatizing everything, she tells about life during war in a time when children knew some, but rarely all of what was going on around them.  It would be a good way to get younger children to open up about their feelings when a loved one goes off to war.  I think this would be a good selection for a personal collection, a counselor’s office or a place where students’ parents are headed away.  This is one of those tough issue books – I would prefer that every librarian read this for themselves before deciding whether to have it in the general collection – not because it is objectionable, just because it is sensitive; that is part of our job, right?    

EL – OPTIONAL.  Cindy, Library Teacher