The Dam Keeper (Dam Keeper Series #1)

by Robert Kondo, Dice Tsutsumi

Overview

Life in Sunrise Valley is tranquil, but beyond its borders lies certain death. A dangerous black fog looms outside the village, but its inhabitants are kept safe by an ingenious machine known as the dam. Pig’s father built the dam and taught him how to maintain it. And then this brilliant inventor did the unthinkable: he walked into the fog and was never seen again.

Now Pig is the dam keeper. Except for his best friend, Fox, and the town bully, Hippo, few are aware of his tireless efforts. But a new threat is on the horizon—a tidal wave of black fog is descending on Sunrise Valley. Now Pig, Fox, and Hippo must face the greatest danger imaginable: the world on the other side of the dam.

Based on the Oscar-nominated animated short film of the same name, The Dam Keeper is a lush, vibrantly drawn graphic novel by Tonko House cofounders Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626724266
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	09/26/2017
Series:	Dam Keeper Series , #1
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	998,302
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	7 - 11 Years

About the Author

Robert Kondo was born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles. As a child, he learned art from his mother, a trained fashion designer, which led him to study illustration at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. For twelve years, he worked at Pixar Animation Studios as an art director on films like Ratatouille, Toy Story 3, and Monsters University.

Originally from Japan, Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Dice has worked as an artist at Blue Sky Studios on Ice Age, Robots, and Horton Hears a Who! and as an art director at Pixar on Toy Story 3 and Monsters University. Along the way, Dice spearheaded charity projects like the Totoro Forest Project and Sketchtravel.

Together, Kondo and Tstutsumi directed the 2015 Oscar-nominated short The Dam Keeper and then founded their own studio, Tonko House, in Berkeley, California.

Editorial Reviews

At the 2015 Academy Awards, one nominee for Best Animated Short Film stood out…At 18 minutes, The Dam Keeper, despite being wondrous to see in a theater, felt less like a finished project than the blueprint for something better. With this book, its creators…have delivered that. Like the film, it features gorgeous digital art that vividly illustrates the interplay of sunlight and shadow. But the book takes the film's story five years forward, and sets its characters off on an adventure that promises to explore the cause of that mysterious fog…The Dam Keeper is thin on dialogue, its plot delivered mostly by wordless, richly drawn comics storytelling. Like the film, it feels a bit unfinished, but in a way readers will find intriguing, not unsatisfying. It ends on a classic first-book-in-a-series cliffhanger, one that expands the world of the story while posing new questions about the situation its characters (and readers) thought they understood. When we watched The Dam Keeper together, my children marveled at its beauty but expressed no interest in what might happen after its events. Few readers will feel that way about Kondo and Tsutsumi's equally lovely, far more engaging book.

The New York Times Book Review - Dan Kois

"A beautifully realized, wonderfully painted tale of courage and mystery." —Shaun Tan, author of The Arrival

"The Dam Keeper is beautiful in every way a graphic novel can be beautiful. A stunner." —Gene Luen Yang, National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and author of American Born Chinese

With a startling sincerity and an almost alchemical use of light , The Dam Keeper manages to believably place very cute animals in an incredibly dark and complex world. I've never seen anything quite like it before."
—Brian Selznick, Caldecott winning author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret

"Gorgeous digital art that vividly illustrated the interplay of sunlight and shadow... Intriguing." —New York Times

"Merged with profound and touching coming-of-age themes, The Dam Keeper invites a groundswell of emotion." —Paste

"Kondo and Tsutsumi have created what feels like an instant classic, perilous and terrifying but full of heart, with immersive artwork and a rewarding story. Unmissable." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"The tug-of-war between light and dark extends out of the plot and right into the images in a haunting story that contrasts the power of friendship with the weight of responsibility and the capacity for growth." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"For fans of emotional fantasy stories, artistic graphic novels, and stories about overcoming obstacles."— School Library Journal

"Beautiful artwork and heartening relationships among the animal characters." —Booklist

From the Publisher

09/01/2017
Gr 3–6—Years ago, the fog came over the dam, killing Pig's mother. Pig's father maintained the dam that keeps the fog out of Sunrise Valley, and showed Pig how to do the same, until the day he went through the door he said never to open, leaving Pig alone. Now, every day Pig winds up the windmill that blows away the fog, which always creeps back. The fog is almost its own character as Pig (and readers) tries to understand its mysteries. Sometimes it seems like a gas, sometimes it's more like an ocean. Sometimes it's impenetrable, sometimes it reveals mysteries. Pig thinks that he understands how the fog will behave, but then he, Fox, and Hippo are suddenly swept away from the safety of their town and must find their way back home. Based on the 2015 Academy Award-nominated short film, this book is cinematic and filled with action, movement, color, and light. VERDICT For fans of emotional fantasy stories, artistic graphic novels, and stories about overcoming obstacles.—Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library

School Library Journal

★ 2017-07-17
A deadly fog has rolled in and killed everything in its path, but Sunrise Valley is protected by an expertly crafted mechanical contrivance called the Dam in this graphic-novel series opener based on the 2015 Oscar-nominated short subject of the same name.Pig's father created the Dam and taught Pig everything about it and how to maintain it. But the madness and grief he felt after losing his wife overcame him, and he stepped out into the fog. Now Pig is alone and has assumed the role of dam keeper. Pig's plagued by nightmares and awkward around classmates; his best friend, Fox, is the light in his life. Her kindness and spirit have even tamed the bully Hippo, and she is trying to bring them all closer as friends, though Pig and Hippo aren't quite convinced. School's out, and Pig eases into the comfort of his solo routine of keeping the Dam, but the fog changes into a new kind of threat, forcing him, with Fox and Hippo, into the world beyond. Every panel of artwork is lush and colorful, with frankly cute animals cast as believable middle schoolers in a post-catastrophe "new normal." The ever present threat of death and the bright light of hope in the story are beautifully reflected in the artwork, which uses light to astonishing effect, and an expressive use of lettering throughout. The hardcover is luxuriously printed and bound with pages that lay flat—a pleasure to read. Kondo and Tsutsumi have created what feels like an instant classic, perilous and terrifying but full of heart, with immersive artwork and a rewarding story. Unmissable. (Graphic fantasy. 7-11)

Kirkus Reviews