When My Dad Went to the Jungle

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.