When My Dad Went to the Jungle

By Gusti, Anne Decis (Illustrator)

A boy's journal reveals the Amazon's wonders and its vanishing secrets.

4.5/7 Bookroo experts·3.6/5 Goodreads · 21 ratings

40 pages

$17.95Save 5%

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Bookroo's summary

A young boy chronicles his father's Amazon adventures, comparing them to his own life. Through imaginative journal entries, he explores the rainforest's beauty and its gradual disappearance. As he learns about the Sápara peoples and their traditions, he dreams of inviting jungle spirits for donuts and hot cocoa. This journey of discovery reveals that a piece of the rainforest resides within us all, urging respect for the world we inhabit. What will he uncover about himself and the natural world as he fills his pages with stories and dreams?

From the publisher

A young boy shares exciting facts and stories about the peoples, plants, and animals who inhabit the Amazon rainforest.

In this original, uplifting book from one of Argentina’s most acclaimed children’s writers, a young boy records his dad’s stories of the Amazonian jungle in his journal. As he does, he can’t help but compare his own life. When you visit the rainforest, you should ask the Sápara peoples for permission and be respectful, just like when you visit your neighbor in the city. Smoked fish is delicious in the rainforest—but hard to make in your bedroom. The rainforest is like a great big house for plants, animals, and spirits, but it’s disappearing, little by little. Filling his journal with imaginative drawings and words, the boy decides what he would do if he visited the rainforest: Invite the spirits for donuts and hot cocoa!

Inspired by the author’s volunteer efforts to assist the Sápara peoples in protecting an endangered bird, _When My Dad Went to the Jungle _portrays a young boy exploring big ideas about the natural world. As he journals, the young boy realizes that, even though life for the Sápara peoples is very different from his own, a little bit of the rainforest lives inside of all of us. If we let it grow, then we will always respect the lands we walk, gather, and play on.

At a glance

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 40
Reading age: 5–9
Audience: Picture
Lexile: 810L

Themes & topics

Books about family Books about jungle animals Books about parents Books about the environment Books about the jungle

The Bookroo review

What our editors thought of this book

As a young boy recounts his father’s journey into the Amazonian jungle and his stay with the Sápara people, he shares interesting facts about surviving in the jungle and the Sápara way of life, interspersed with hilarious misunderstandings. For example, he explains how the Sápara hunt using “a blowgun made from a very, very long hollow reed,” but concludes, “My dad was so skinny when he got back that he must have always missed.” At another point, he describes how people in the jungle eat smoked fish and worms grown from decaying palm trees. When he and his friends try their own hand at these food sources, they find not even the cat will eat the kingfish they left in the window “so it would get smoked by the smoke from the cars and buses,” and his mom nearly faints when she discovers them as they try to fry potatoes using worms from the garden. In the midst of his wit, author Gusti includes sobering commentary on the depletion of Amazonia’s rich resources and the need for conservation. Decis’ illustrations are simple and laid out on a lined paper background, giving the book the feel of a field journal. Amado achieves the difficult task of preserving wit and humor in this English language version of Decis’ original Spanish language text.

The verdict

“Prepare for a hilarious yet educational trip into the jungle.”

Bookroo Editorial

Reviewed March 2020

4.5/7

What readers & critics say