Synopsis
A collection of personal reminiscences of the author's youth in a hamlet in the central highlands of Vietnam. "Grades five to seven." (Bull Cent Child Books)

Annotation
The author lived in a hamlet in the central highlands of Vietnam, surrounded by jungle on one side and a river on the other, where he and the villagers encountered animals daily--some easily tamed, others, like tigers and wild hogs, which were terribly dangerous. "This first-person narrative brims with life."--School Library Journal.

Description from The Reader's Catalog
Not about the war but about encounters with crocodiles and snakes and other adventures

From The Publisher
The author lived in a hamlet in the central highlands of Vietnam, surrounded by jungle on one side and a river on the other, where he and the villagers encountered animals daily--some easily tamed, others, like tigers and wild hogs, which were terribly dangerous. "This first-person narrative brims with life".--School Library Journal.

Reviews
From Joyce Rice - Children's Literature  
The highlands of Vietnam were home to young Huynh Quang. Through his eyes, we see the small village and the 50 houses made of bamboo, built along the river or alongside the mountain. In this village, there were no shops or marketplaces. Supplies had to be brought in from a nearby town, across the mountains. Fish for mealtimes came from the river near the village. The rainy season brought fields of rice, sweet potatoes, corn and hot peppers. During the dry season, villagers hunted the wild animals that roamed the jungle. This is an excellent addition for multicultural studies, but may be difficult reading for the suggested seven to ten year old. 1999 (orig.
 
From Joyce Howe - Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books  
Each chapter, in this book of reminiscence about the author's boyhood in a hamlet in the Vietnamese highlands, is a separate episode, although the samecharacters appear in many of the episodes. . . . The writing has an ingenuousquality that adds to the appeal of the strong sense of familial and communal ties that pervades the story.
 

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