From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6. Lumbering along in its armored coat, the impressive monitor lizard known as the Komodo dragon looks very much like its prehistoric ancestors. The Darlings' fine, full-color photographs and informative text provide an interesting close-up view of the powerful meat eaters as they ambush prey, gather to eat, fight with one another, and mate. The well-constructed narrative is divided into short chapters that discuss habitat, physical characteristics, senses, hunting, reproduction, and zoo efforts to stem the dying-off of these unusual animals. Readers will be attracted by the excellent pictures of the dragons in their natural habitat and well-served by the lucid explanations. There's no map locating the far-off Indonesian Islands that are the only home of this rare species, but otherwise this is a well-crafted presentation on an intriguing animal.?Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 4^-6. Another in the Darlings' nicely appointed On Location series, this finds the team on Komodo Island facing off against a "real" dragon. Mother Kathy provides the friendly, informative text, with daughter Tara supplying the full-color photos. The basics for reports are included--information about feeding patterns and mating habits and a little about physical characteristics and behavior. However, curious children will want to know more about this odd beast, especially about its biological ancestry and how it came to be entrapped on its current island home. Still this is both readable and useful. A page of "dragon facts" is appended.
Stephanie Zvirin
