A Natural History of Magical Beasts (Folklore Field Guides #4)
by Emily Hawkins (Author) Jessica Roux (Illustrator)
Featuring a gold-foil-embossed cloth cover, a ribbon marker and sprayed gold edges, this gorgeous volume is filled with beautiful illustrations and precise notes detailing the secret lives of magical beasts.
Tales of magical creatures have been told across the world for generations... but are these stories merely flights of fancy, or is there any truth to the legends of unicorns and dragons, centaurs and griffins? Presented as the notebook of a 1920s zoologist, this lavish volume sets out to answer this question, revealing the hidden world of the magical beasts that live among us. Within these pages you will meet bizarre and beautiful creatures from around the globe, discovering their habits, habitats and the legends surrounding them. Learn about the anatomy of a unicorn, the life cycle of a phoenix, incredible dragon courtship dances and much more in this ultimate guide to magical creatures.
This exquisitely illustrated album will entrance all true-believers and fantasy enthusiasts. Fascinating facts are accompanied by breathtaking illustrations, all presented in an engaging narrative form.
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School Library Journal
Gr 2-5--An impressive addition to the "Folklore Field Guide" series, Hawkins and Roux's third collaboration draws readers into the world of magical beasts. Crafted as a scrapbooklike compilation of writings and illustrations that showcase the fictional Dr. Pagonis and assistant Miss Matsouka's field notes about all manner of magical creatures, this is a book to savor. Brimming with fine, immersive illustrative details that sculpt a wide selection of creatures, every page describes the being's habitat, behaviors, characteristics, and the dangers it faces from human actions. The book seeks to tie a thread of awareness about real-world connections between humans and the destruction of habitats or dwindling animal populations, though not all readers may note this theme among the mix of structured lists and description summaries. The collection features magical beings from multiple global regions, organized in a table of contents. Roux's realistic touches, including stunning textures and contrasts developed between fine lines, surround the stylized texts, as do natural elements peeking around the papers' edges. Framed with features of its habitat, each close-up portrayal of a creature takes center stage, rewarding the browser, while those with a firmer grasp of vocabulary can explore the text in-depth and differentiate references to the "modern world" and historical times in the depicted lore. VERDICT Readers with keen interest in fantasy or fantastic beasts from around the world will devour the delightfully intricate illustrations and freely explore the scrapbooklike field notes that detail the creatures' traits and habitats.--Rachel Mulligan
Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
Once a children's book editor, Emily Hawkins is now a full-time author. Her work has been featured on the New York Times bestseller list (Oceanology, 2009) as well as winning the Children's Travel Book of the Year Award (Atlas of Animal Adventures, 2016). Along with her background in children's non-fiction Emily has a strong interest in myth, folklore and storytelling. In 2020 she wrote A Natural History of Fairies, which has been translated into twelve languages, selling more than 100,000 copies worldwide. Emily holds a first-class English degree from Nottingham University, and lives in Winchester, UK.
Jessica Roux is a Nashville-based illustrator and plant and animal enthusiast. She loves exploring in her own backyard and being surrounded by an abundance of nature. Using subdued colors and rhythmic shapes, she renders flora, fauna, food, and many other things with intricate detail reminiscent of old world beauty. Her first book with Frances Lincoln was A Natural History of Fairies (September 2020).
JUV022000 - Juvenile Fiction | Legends, Myths, & Fables | General
JUV052000 - Juvenile Fiction | Monsters
Mythology
Animals, Mythical
