Ghouls and Monsters by Robert Ingpen

Ghouls and Monsters Reviews

• 
  Andrew

  This is another in the series of The mystery and Magic series where the acclaimed artist Robert Ingpen and Molly Pernham create a fun book celebrating monsters and ghouls from common myth and pop culture (after all sitting George and the Dragon along side King Kong and Godzilla is a brave move)
  
  But I have said this before and I will say this again any sin can be over looked (and please do not think i am implying that the layout of the book is) by the art of Robert Ingpen which for me has an etherial and almost dream like quality to it which coupled with his gentle fantasy take on each subject makes the entires fascinating and imaginative. So that even though you may think you know all there is - it feels that there is still something to be learned and you JUST have to read on.
  
  The series of broken in to 4 books Ghouls and Monsters, Gods and Goddesses, Heroes and Heroines and Magicians and Fairies and although you feel like you can predict the contents of each book there is always something new or unexpected.
  
  A great read for the younger reader - there is still to entertain and appeal to the adult (well that is how I am justifying it) its a great read from the Dragons World publisher (yes it is related to Papertiger)
• 
  Doria

  A somewhat interesting but rather scattered and very Euro-centric collection of legends and myths and folktales, purportedly of ghouls and monsters. It turns out to be decidedly short on ghouls, but my real objection is to the chapter labeled insultingly “The Rest of the World”, in which Asian and African and Middle Eastern and Australian tales - and very few of them at that - are roughly lumped together.
  
  The main body of the book’s stories and traditions are from Europe, and in fact, some are drawn from books. The entry on Moby Dick consists of a summary or cheat sheet of the novel, along with illustrations, really a waste of the space given. Similarly, Jekyll and Hyde, Dorian Gray, Frankenstein and Dracula all had generous entries, which I think is rather a cheat for a book supposedly devoted to traditional narratives. There are plenty of other sources where readers could read Cliff’s notes for classic novels (better to read them straight through, of course) and I was annoyed that they took up space here that could have been given over to more examples of genuine folklore and ghost narratives. It’s ridiculous that the rich traditions of curious Japanese monsters were given a scant two pages, to say nothing of the other countries and continents short-changed, given the amount of space allowed for rehashing well-known European fiction.
  
  I would have given it two stars, if not for the illustrations, which are really first rate. Another serious deficiency is the lack of proper attribution of sources. Folklorists will not appreciate the inability to easily trace the roots of the stories retold here.
• 
  Stacy

  If I had read this before reading "Encyclopedia of Things that Never Were" I would have given it more stars, I'm sure. As it is, I read the Encyclopedia first and then checked this one out after searching out more Robert Ingpen book. This is okay but brief. Not a lot of creatures and it it more of a blend of stories and encyclopedic entries and it was the presence of the stories that made me like it less.