Komodo Dragon: On Location

ISBN 10: 0688137776 ISBN 13: 9780688137779

Publisher: Lothrop Lee & Shepard, 1997

Synopsis

Describes the physical characteristics, habitat, and behavior of the giant lizards found only in Indonesia

About this title

About the Author:

In Her Own Words...

"Kathy and Tara Darling collaborate on children’s books that focus on rare and endangered wildlife. To their knowledge, they are the world’s only mother/daughter wildlife writer/photographer team.

"Although they are mother and daughter, they work as equal partners. Tara explains, "We complement each other. I see in photographic images and Mother sees in word pictures. These two different views grow together as we work on a project, until the words and photos blEND

into one single statement."

"The Darlings studied the manatees of Crystal River, Florida, over a period of two years as they prepared Manatee: On Location, the first book in the prize-winning On Location series. The arctic wilderness of Round Island, Alaska, the site of their second book for Lothrop, Walrus: On Location, tested togetherness as they sat in a tiny wet tent and waited out violent storms. There were scary moments in Belize when Kathy was attacked by a vampire bat and in Australia when Tara had the seat of her pants ripped out by a sea lion bull. But, they write, "we think making young people aware of the danger the animals are in more than outweighs any danger we might face. We care, and we hope through our words and pictures that we will get young people to care too. Maybe some will even care enough to choose this career for themselves."

"Together, the Darlings have done twenty books about animals as exotic as Tasmanian devils and as familiar as dogs. Kathy Darling has written scores of books. Her subjects have ranged from the animals she writes about in her books with Tara to the experiments in chemistry and physics she writes about with Vicki Cobb in Wanna Bet?, Bet You Can!, and Bet You Can’t!. Her interest in science began as a child, and in college she majored in biology. In addition to being a writer, Mrs. Darling has been a children’s book editor, a publicist, and a syndicated newspaper columnist.

"Tara Darling studied marine biology at Boston University and worked with penguins and otters at the New England Aquarium. After several years of doing TV research in a New York office, she realized that capturing the lives of endangered animals on film was work that was infinitely more rewarding to her. A member of the Professional Photographers of America, her credits include a CD-ROM about dogs, as well as numerous magazine covers."

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-6. Lumbering along in its armored coat, the impressive monitor lizard known as the Komodo dragon looks very much like its prehistoric ancestors. The Darlings' fine, full-color photographs and informative text provide an interesting close-up view of the powerful meat eaters as they ambush prey, gather to eat, fight with one another, and mate. The well-constructed narrative is divided into short chapters that discuss habitat, physical characteristics, senses, hunting, reproduction, and zoo efforts to stem the dying-off of these unusual animals. Readers will be attracted by the excellent pictures of the dragons in their natural habitat and well-served by the lucid explanations. There's no map locating the far-off Indonesian Islands that are the only home of this rare species, but otherwise this is a well-crafted presentation on an intriguing animal.?Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lothrop Lee & Shepard
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0688137776
• ISBN 13: 9780688137779
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Darling Tara