Komodo! [Hardcover]

Peter Sis (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: P and up

"Mad about dragons, the boy who narrates this picture book is pleased when his doting parents decide to take him to Indonesia, home of the Komodo dragon....[The boy] takes the road less traveled through the jungle, where he encounters the dragon of his dreams....Full of intriguing detail....picture book, original in concept and beautiful in design."--Booklist.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A young aficionado of dragons gets the chance of a lifetime when his parents take him to the Indonesian island of Komodo, home to the Komodo dragon--the world's largest lizard, and the sole extant carnivorous dinosaur. The place proves a tourist trap, complete with a staged Dragon Show, but the unnamed narrator ventures into the jungle and has a fleeting but profoundly satisfying encounter with one of the creatures. Although Sis's story is, in the main, rather slight, dragon enthusiasts will be charmed by its mixture of fact (lots of information about the Komodo dragon is included) and fancy (the boy's improbable meeting). The book's true richness, though, lies in its illustrations--watercolors given texture by fine pen-and-ink hatching--which are almost as lush as the Indonesian landscape itself. They contain an abundance of detail and even sly jokes ("It is always easy to find me in school pictures because of my dragon T-shirt," the narrator proclaims, as he stands well camouflaged in a crowd scene worthy of Waldo). Moments of deliberate visual ambiguity add to the fun: is that jungle foliage we see, or a dragon's emerging form? Ages 4-up.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 3-- A young boy's lifelong fascination with dragons takes him on a mystical journey to Indonesia. From cover to endpapers, there are dragons everywhere. On the title page, mysterious eyes peek out of the foliage-filled letters that spell Komodo! The boy's bedroom is bursting with dragon paraphernalia: live lizards lurk in leafy tanks, dragon toys hide in nooks and crannies, colorful dinosaur posters grace the walls--there's even a graphic of a dragon on the computer screen. In a living room decorated with dragon-bedecked wallpaper and rugs, the child's parents announce their plans for a trip to see a "real dragon." After sailing to the island of Komodo, the family is disappointed to find a large throng of tourists. When the boy wanders off alone into the lush jungle, where cleverly drawn dragon shapes and features hide in vines and leaves, he finally comes face to face with a majestic Komodo dragon. By combining simple, straightforward sentences with carefully detailed, imaginatively designed drawings, Sis extends and enhances the text through a visual feast of images. His pen-and-ink and watercolor paintings have the texture of aged parchment and the charm of an antique map, adding to the adventurous mood of a safari. With its subtle environmental message and interesting facts about the largest monitor lizard, this picture-book fantasy successfully combines information with imagination. --Joy Fleishhacker, New York Public Library
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books; 1st Mulberry ed edition (May 27, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688115837
• ISBN-13: 978-0688115838
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #933,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A moment of thrill, March 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Komodo! (Hardcover)

Peter Sis is a fine artist whose distinct style of soft outlines works well for this lush book. It tells the story of a young boy whose favorite thing is dragons. When he learns that there are real dragons on the island of Komodo (which is in fact true - huge monitor lizards inhabit the island) he takes a plane there. Distressed by the many tourists, he takes off on his own for a very private, magical, fleeting moment of discovering a Komodo dragon in the wild. The book has bits of subtle humor in it - for example, the text deadpans that "it is always easy to find me in a crowd because of my dragon T-shirt" - while the illustration shows a huge crowd of kids that actually demands a lot of searching to find our hero! Preschool/1st grade nature lovers and explorers will enjoy this gently exciting tale. A brief postscript talks about real Komodo dragons.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sis's masterwork, March 13, 2004

By 

E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Komodo! (Hardcover)

There are moments when you just have to tell the parent in yourself to shut up. As I read Peter Sis's spectacular "Komodo", I was finding myself switching into worry mode as I went through the text. The story, if you are unfamiliar with it, follows the obsession of a boy who loves dragons more than anything else in the world. Being the doting parents they are, the boy and his mom and dad take a plane trip to Indonesia to see some komodo dragons for themselves. While waiting for a dragon to appear for some tourists, the boy separates himself from the party and finds himself face to face with his own komodo dragon.

Now as I read this I found myself mentally berating Peter Sis. Saying things along the lines of, "Why isn't he telling kids how dangerous komodo dragons are? That a single bite could kill you with its bacteria? That they're not the cuddly lizards so imagined in this book?" At which point I suddenly realized how stupid I sounded. Let's face the facts. As Mr. Sis himself recounts, the komodo dragon is native to one, count `em, one country in the world. Children reading this book are not going to run into the street, find a komodo dragon, and try to make it a pet. So let's just settle back and admire Sis's illustrations and text for what they are. Thoughtful and meticulous.

If you've never viewed a Peter Sis illustration closely, I highly recommend it. It's a trip. Using the tiniest black pen strokes imaginable, Sis conjures up miles and miles of details in each thoughtful illustration. The very first double-page spread is of the narrator's class picture. He notes that it's very easy to locate him because of his dragon t-shirt. Anyone unfamiliar with this picture, however, will be stunned by the vast sea of children presented, our narrator wearing his trademark jaunty red cap and white dragon shirt. And what child wouldn't want to live in a house that's wallpapered in dragons? Or a bedroom chock full of everything from a dragon punching bag to a real skull. This kid's got it made. The book's colors shift slowly from the warm reddish tones of the boy's bedroom to the mysterious deep green foliage of Komodo Island. Keep an eye out for all the komodos hidden in the leaves, trees, grass, etc. too! A helpful fact section located at the back of the book is the perfect compliment to this gripping subject.

Kids need obsessions. They need animals that are cool but not done to death like dinosaurs or elephants. The komodo dragon offers the perfect combination of deadly abilities and cool looks. Now we have a book to encompass all the wonders and looks of this incredible animal. This book is truly a finely honed piece of work.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real dragons. Really., May 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Komodo! (Paperback)

Komodo! is about a boy who collects dragon memorabilia. So his parents take him to the Indonesian island of the Komodo dragon. While his parents get the family's place in line for the Dragon Show, they let him wander away from the crowds of tourists for what turns out to be the best of adventures. The pen and ink and watercolor drawings are delightfully detailed, with the left-handed boy going from duller colored beginning pages for his city life to lusher green colored pages for visiting the wild world of his dreams. Peter Sis includes some facts about dragons by drawing two pages from the scrapbook the boy has gotten together for his trip and also by including an afterword. Like Fire Truck and Rainbow Rhino (also by Peter Sis) Komodo! relies on sparse text and emphasizes telling a story through the drawings. I feel the book fits well in the tradition of such classics as And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street by Dr. Seuss.