A young boy who loves dragons goes with his parents to the Indonesian island of Komodo in hopes of seeing a real dragon - (Baker & Taylor)
"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. - (HARPERCOLL)
Kirkus Reviews
As in Martin/Gammell's Will's Mammoth (1989), reality turns to fantasy when a child is so fascinated by dragons that her parents take her to the Indonesian island of Komodo, where, escaping crowds of tourists, she wanders into the jungle and encounters a ten-foot monitor lizard--the Komodo dragon of her dreams. Sis's visual realization of this slight storyline is splendidly imaginative. On the opening spreads, the young enthusiast is already creating dragons from a rich variety of materials: sand, topiary, her own shadow. After a Waldo-style mob scene where she's identified by her dragon T-shirt, Sis depicts her sumptuous apartment, in tones of brown, as virtually a museum, crammed with dragon artifacts and images in contemporary media: fax, computer screen, etc. Bali's crowded tourist traps are drawn with satirical wit; the lush blue- green jungle, burgeoning with plants that all mimic benign lizards and dragons, is fascinating. A note adds a bit more about this rare ``survivor of the carnivorous dinosaurs.'' Lucid, elegantly rendered art with a wealth of intriguing details; wonderfully appealing subject. (Picture book. 4+) Copyright 1999 Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly Reviews
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. (May) Copyright 1993 Cahners Business Information.
School Library Journal Reviews
PreS-Gr 3-Readers are asked to find a young dragon fancier in his crowded class picture, then travel with him to the island of Komodo where the last dragons live. Here they can count the camouflaged critters hiding in their jungle habitat. Big print-and big fun-in support of literacy and numeracy. (July 1993) Copyright 1998 School Library Journal
School Library Journal Reviews
PreS-Gr 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 Cahners Business Information.
