Not In Room 204-By: Sharron Riggs; Illustrated By: Jaime Zollars

This book is aimed for ages 4 to 8 years old. After reading it, it definitely covers the heavy topic of sexual abuse. I don't know if children would understand the book, if sexual abuse isn't explicitly happening to him/her at such a young age, and the book never says straight forward what is happening to the main character Regina Lillian Hadwig, but rather in only a more round about way. I don't necessarily think that the book needs to be more straight forward, but how Regina handles the sexual abuse is different then another person might handle the sexual abuse. I think when discussing sexual abuse everyone handles it differently. It can happen to boys or girls and people don't always handle it in the same way, emotionally or physically. So I think this book only portrays a very small percentage that might be affected by sexual abuse. Also teachers aren't going to be as upfront about the issue as Mrs. Salvador was. Many teachers don't mention it in their classrooms because it's something that may "cross the line" to bring up to their students because many parents don't think it is appropriate at such a young age, when actually this age group is the large majority of people affected. Mrs. Salvador didn't seem like a very warm person a the beginning of the book and makes me as a reader feel a little intimidated because she is always disciplining the class rather then giving positive criticism. I only sense her kind, caring personality half way through the book, when she is talking with Regina personally. She is not someone that I would be comfortable talking to because of how strict she seemed. The note at the beginning of the book was very nice to know what the reader was going to encounter in the book. I feel like it wasn't aimed only at adults but to let children know that it isn't their fault. But yet there were things that adults can do and ways to help. I think I would be comfortable reading this in my class but only with something leading into it. Like a unit on safety or health, but I won't dwell on the sexual abuse topic, but rather let the students know that there are people to turn to. I think if this is happening to a child that they will know what you are talking about and seek out help, if they know that they are safe.