Komodo!

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 LibraryCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.