Looking for Atlantis [Hardcover]

Colin Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up

When a seafaring grandfather returns home for the last time, his ten-year-old grandson searches for the great treasure hidden in the sailor's old wooden chest.  But Grandfather's legacy is much more than gold coins--it is the promise that the imagination holds the mightiest treasure of all.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Thompson's ( The Paper Bag Prince ) haunting picture book is both serious and witty. The deceptively simple story opens with the death of the young narrator's grandfather, a raffish sailor. Responding to the death, Titanic the parrot says, "Hello, sailor," a contrary comment that sets up the narrator's contrarily successful search for mythical Atlantis. It is all around, Grandfather has said: "You have to learn how to look for it." Look the boy does, through a dense, Escher-like world where everyday objects (walls, books, cellars) yield a treasure trove of apparently infinite (and often hilarious) surprises. The boy's quest begins through a little door at the bottom of Grandfather's trunk; the story line follows the classic hero cycle, with its obligatory dark night of the soul and ultimate emergence into self-discovery. Thompson's hero has added the power of imagination to the straightforward ability to see, and the author/artist accordingly glosses his tale with immensely satisfying art--intricate, colorful, joyous. Does the boy find Atlantis? Asked literally, the question is beside the point; in a mythic sense, however, it is the point, and one exceptionally well made. All ages.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 3 Up-An adult looks back to the time when, as a young boy, he was struggling with the pain of losing his beloved, seafaring grandfather. The dying man, who "...set out on his final voyage, across a sea of dreams and gray feathers," tells his grandson that he will be well again when the boy finds Atlantis, but that he must "...learn how to look for it." The symbolic search for the underwater world is depicted with visually imaginative splendor. Watercolor masterpieces of blending realities-that of the boy's house and that of Atlantis- contain myriad images that are striking, mysterious, dreamlike, witty, and eternal, and the simple, spare prose holds transcendental truth.
Barbara Peklo Abrahams, Oneida City Schools, Manlius, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; 1st Dragonfly books ed edition (March 8, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067985648X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679856481
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 9.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,177,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Magic of Imagination, December 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Looking for Atlantis (Dragonfly Books) (Paperback)

I am giving this book 5 stars for the benefit of my two sons, ages 10 and 6. Both of them have enjoyed this book so much, it can't be rated any less than 5 stars. The pictures are mesmorizing and add to the magic of the storyline which teaches children to use their imagination. It also teaches them that, with their imagination, anything is possible!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars They loved it!, August 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Looking for Atlantis (Dragonfly Books) (Paperback)

I just spent a week at the beach with my two grandsons, ages 4 and 5. We read this book over and over and over and over again. Searching for objects and moving through tiny doors to each new magical page, their interest never waned. I recommend it very highly!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is much more to look for in this book than Atlantis, May 28, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Looking for Atlantis (Hardcover)

When the narrator of "Looking for Atlantis" was a ten-year-old boy his grandfather came home from the sea for the first time. His grandfather had traveled every ocean a hundred times and visited every country of the world from the plains of Patagonia to the distant volcano of Tristan da Cunha. Before he died the boy's grandfather gives him the large wooden chest by his bed, telling him "Everything you could ever want is in that chest if you know where to look for it." He also talks about the boy getting to Atlantis, explaining that you have to learn to look for the mythical land but that it "is right here, all around you."

After the grandfather dies writer and artist Colin Thompson shows us the lifetime of treasures contained within that chest. "Looking for Atlantis" is primarily a picture book. By this I mean two things. First, that the chief attraction here are the pictures, in which Thompson often fills every square inch with literally dozens of details. You can spend an hour just looking over everything that we see when the boy opens up his grandfather's chest for the first time. But those who are familiar with Thompson's other work, such as "The Paperbag Prince" and "How to Live Forever," know that is exactly what to expect from his books. Young readers will have to ask adults for explanations as to the meaning of "Macho Mariner Biscuits with Extra Weevils" and to point out which bird is the Dodo.

Second, "Looking for Atlantis" is a picture book because after the detailed narrative at the beginning the words disappear for the most part. There are six picture spreads in which there is only a single line to be read. Clearly Thompson knows that once he gets going with his detailed illustrations words are something of a distraction from the main feast. However, there is a point to the story regarding the power of the imagination and the transcendental quality of love, it is just that the art is so visually stunning that you have to remind yourself that there is a narrative thread to the book as well.

There are also references to famous paintings throughout the book, which means that young readers will be able to return to this book as they grow older and find they get more of what is going on in each illustration. Thompson came up with the idea of "Looking For Atlantis" because he wanted to do a book that was a cross-section of a house. Having already used the idea in the 1993 Leeds calendar, Thompson needed a reason for a young boy to go through all the rooms on a house and decided that searching for Atlantis was a much better idea than just looking for a lost book or a cat. Eventually the idea was refined to the point that Thompson clearly had a lesson about how to look for something was more important than knowing where to look for something. Just be forewarned: once you enjoy one of Thompson's picture books you are going to want to track down the rest of them as well.