Scholastic will publish an autobiographical picture book by Suzanne Collins called Year of the Jungle. The book will hit stores in September.
The book is about how her family coped with her father’s year serving in Vietnam. Like her previous two series, The Underland Chronicles and The Hunger Games, the book focuses on themes of war. Artist James Proimos, who also worked with Collins in children’s television, will illustrate. We’ve embedded the cover image below.
Collins (pictured, via) had this statement in the release: “For several years I had this little wicker basket next to my writing chair with the postcards my dad had sent me from Viet Nam and photos of that year. But I could never quite find a way into the story. It has elements that can be scary for the audience and it would be easy for the art to reinforce those. It could be really beautiful art but still be off-putting to a kid, which would defeat the point of doing the book. Then one day I was having lunch with Jim and telling him about the idea and he said, ‘That sounds fantastic.’ I looked at him and I had this flash of the story through his eyes, with his art. It was like being handed a key to a locked door. So, I just blurted out, ‘Do you want to do it?’ Fortunately he said yes. That afternoon, on the train ride home, the book started unfolding in my head.”
