Komodo!

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.

I like Peter Sis' illustrations a lot and I keep buying his books and this one did not disappoint me. The illustrations are delightful and it is fun to explore them with your child. And the whole story has a secret wink for the reader and nudges you on for more explorations.

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.

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.