The Book of Mythical Beasts and Magical Creatures by D.K. Publishing

The Book of Mythical Beasts and Magical Creatures Reviews

• 
  Miya (severe pain struggles, slower at the moment)

  Picked this up at a local store. The illustrations are out of this world gorgeous. Bright, colorful, and unique. I love how it shows all these mythical and magical creatures and gives information on where their legends began. It is great to learn a bit and open curiosity leading to kids wanting to research more about topics they really like. Absolutely love it!
• 
  Mateicee

  Ein grober Überblick über verschiedene Fabelwesen und Kreaturen aus verschiedenen Kulturen der Welt.
  
  Die Beschreibungen sind recht oberflächlich, die Illustrationen sind aber dafür umso schöner. Für Kinder auf jeden Fall geeignet, aber auch ich hatte meine Freude mit dem Buch.
  
  Kleiner Kritikpunkt, das Buch stinkt wie die Pest, ich hoffe der Gestank legt sich mit der Zeit🙈
• 
  Erin

  4.5 stars! This had great little blurbs or profiles for many different characters and creatures in world mythology.
• 
  Isabelle

  The Book of Mythical Beasts and Magical Creatures // by Stephen Krensky // illustrated by Pham Quang Phuc
  
  This honestly must be the most beautiful children’s book I put my hands on this year, or even ever. Between the subject, the text, and the illustrations, there is nothing I did not like about this book. There is no question of whether this book will end up on my shelf as a physical copy.
  
  The book is split into 8 sections: Our Mysterious World, Good and Evil, Tricksters, Shape-Shifters, Almost Human, Creatures of the Deep, Winged Wonders, and Beasts of the World. Each section starts out with a quick intro that is followed by the creatures and beasts that fall into its category. They each have a page spread dedicated to them that includes their name, an illustration, where in the world they originate from, and a few paragraphs of description.
  
  At the end of the book, you will find an A-Z of Creatures that lists all of them in alphabetical order in case you are searching for a specific one. There, you also find the meaning of their name as well as a quick origin section. This is followed by the Glossary and Index to further assist in a specific search and to decipher the meanings of words that may be unknown to the reader.
  
  I know I already said it above but I have to say it again. This book is stunning. Pham Quang Phuc is an absolutely brilliant illustrator that makes this book such a gift to own. Or to give away. This would be a beautiful present for any child. While the book itself is definitely interesting, the marvelous illustrations with their vibrant colors just take it to a whole different level.
  
  Aside from being a great children’s book, I honestly think this would be a fun and quick resource for writers looking for creatures to include in their stories. There is obviously not enough information about them to base an entire character on them and they would need to do more research to really be culturally accurate but it is a fun reference place to get started.
  
  Did I mention it is beautiful yet?
  
  Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Kübra Yağmur Aslanhan

  kitabı yarın bitirecektim ama yanlışlıkla, güncelleme yaparken finishledim. o yüzden bugün okuyup bitireceğim; yorum yazacağım. demiş olsam da daha yeni bitirdim.
  
  gerçekten güzel bir kitaptı, okurken keyfime keyif kattı.
  şahane illüstrasyonları vardı her şeyden önce. okuduğum her an keşke basılı olarak elimde olsa diye yakındım.
  ikinci olarak, neredeyse tüm canavar ve yaratıkları biliyor olsam bile tüm bunların kategorize edilip sekiz bölüme ayrılması kısmını çok sevdim. bu düzen kitabı sıkıcı olmaktan çıkarmış bana göre. çünkü benzeri türden kitaplar bu tasnif işini kültürlere göre yapıyorlar haliyle benim dikkatim kiminde çok yüksek olurken kiminde aman bitsin ruh haline giriyorum. burada o tekdüzeliği aşmayı müthiş başarmışlardı.
  
  bir gün imkanım olursa alacağım kitaplardan.
• 
  Alicia Bayer

  There's no way I'm not buying a copy of this book for one of my kids for Christmas. The only question is which one, as I think they all would love it. I love it. Just wow. The art is just phenomenally beautiful. It's well organized into sections and it actually contains characters and creatures from all over instead of just the standard Greek or occasionally Norse myths most books mention. Some characters have a variety listed, like the fairy pages that show fairy types of creatures from all different cultures around the world. The text is just enough to give kids interesting information but not so much that it bogs them down or bores them, or gets them to just skip the text and look at the pictures. The colors are vibrant and it's absolutely stunning and a pleasure to read.
  
  Highly, highly recommended.
  
  I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.
• 
  Corvus

  It's nice to see a variety of mythical beings from different places than Europe, though it could be a bit more informative. It's just a very basic blurb about each creature and it doesn't explain where this knowledge is from or if they just made it up. Not that mythology is very exact to begin with, I am aware of that, but still.
  The art and design of this book (by Pham Quang Phuc) is outstanding though and basically what sold it to me when I first saw it in a bookshop. Such vibrant colours!
• 
  Rachael

  Just got this for my (soon to be 6yr old) nephew’s birthday, because you’ve got to start them young. And Dragons are always a good idea. Can’t wait to read this with him!
• 
  Sara Hill

  The Book of Mythical Beast by Stephen Krensky was filled with so many mythical beasts from all over the world. The writing was great. Some creatures had longer descriptions than others. I liked that the book had dedicated pages to just witches, or just faeries, etc. It was fun to have them all together, so you can compare myths from around the world. What really made the book are the illustrations by Pham Quang Phuc. They are stunning. This book is perfect for anyone that is interested in mythology.
  
  I received an eARC from DK Children through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.
• 
  Kevin Valera

  I think this is a truly exceptional, well-researched, and aesthetically designed tome of mythical beasts and magical creatures. The illustrations are beautiful indeed. The descriptions and brief narrations of stories where the creatures are featured were written in a way that it increases your interest towards delving deeper into the individual stories of the beasts.
  
  Moreover, the depiction of the stories give more information on the culture and the people who pass the story from one generation to another. Truly a spell-binding experience to works of the imagination that withstood years of tradition and adventure.
• 
  Sarah

  Really enjoyed this book. Beautiful artwork. I look forward to adding a copy to my shelf!
• 
  Chrisanne

  14-year-old me would have loved this book. The illustrations are so fun and lots of info is packed into a fun, but manageable-for-kids, paragraph.
• 
  Frank Lang

  Wer meinen Blog und somit meine Lesevorlieben kennt, wird wissen, dass ich gern in „mythologischen Welten“ unterwegs bin. Ich habe schon als Kind sehr gerne Mythen und Legenden des Altertums gelesen und bin grundsätzlich sehr empfänglich für diese Thematik. Dieser Hang zur Mythologie scheint auf meine Kinder übergeschwappt zu sein. Woran ohne Frage die vielen Kinderbücher Schuld sind, die es mittlerweile zu diesem Thema gibt. Das erklärt zumindest, weshalb meine beiden größeren Jungs mir das Buch „Magische Fabelwesen und mythische Kreaturen“ (noch während ich es gelesen habe) streitig gemacht haben.
  
  Das ist im Grunde genommen das schönste Lob für ein solches Buch, aber ich möchte doch ein bisschen zu dem Buch erzählen. Dieses Buch ist nämlich etwas ganz besonderes. Es zeigt nämlich sehr viele mythische Figuren und Fabelwesen nicht nur aus den Sagen und Legenden der westlichen Welt, sondern quer durch alle Kulturen aus aller Herren Länder. Einige Wesen werden dem (jungen) Leser vielleicht schon bekannt sein (vor allem, wenn sie durch andere Formate bekannt gemacht wurden, wie z.B. Loki), sehr viele aber vermutlich nicht.
  
  Um nicht den Überblick zu verlieren und um das Buch zu strukturieren, wurden verschiedene Kategorien ausgedacht, mit denen man die Wesen gut gruppieren kann. Und so gibt es z.B. die Kategorie „Gut und Böse“, in der sich Feen, Drachen und Hexen tummeln. Bei diesen Beispielen wird es zusätzlich interessant, weil es manche Wesen in vielen Kulturen gibt. Bei den Drachen werden viele z.B. den Unterschied zwischen den europäischen und chinesischen Varianten kennen.
  
  Neben solchen Übersichten gibt es aber auch viele Einzelvorstellungen, wie der schon erwähnte Loki oder z.B. der Faun. Diese Mischung aus Übersichten einzelner Kreaturen aus unterschiedlichen Kulturkreisen ist ebenso spannend wie diese Einzelvorstellungen. Dazu tragen auch die sehr ansprechenden zeichnerischen Darstellungen bei. Auf jeder Doppelseite werden die unterschiedlichen Wesen sehr farbenfroh und stimmungsvoll in Szene gesetzt. Das geht sogar soweit, dass meine Jungs zuerst durch das Buch geblättert haben, nur um sich die Zeichnungen anzuschauen, nur um dann später sich den Texten zu widmen. Diese sind kurz und knackig und kommen in kindgerechter Sprache schnell auf den Punkt. Meist sind diese Kurzvorstellung ausreichend, um ein Gefühl für die Vielfalt der unterschiedlichen Wesen aus unterschiedlichen Kulturkreisen zu erhalten.
  
  Fazit
  
  Es ist ein sehr schönes Buch, in dem sehr viele unterschiedliche Fabelwesen aus aller Welt vorgestellt werden. Die schönen Illustrationen gepaart mit den treffsicheren Texten haben meine Kinder ebenso angesprochen wie mich selbst. Um ein Gefühl dafür zu kriegen, wie unterschiedlich zum Teil gleiche Wesen in unterschiedlichen Ländern gesehen werden, ist das Buch wunderbar geeignet. Es ist einfach zu faszinierend, diese Vielfalt gebündelt präsentiert zu bekommen.
  
• 
  Meghan

  This book was received as an ARC from DK Children in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.
  
  I was so impressed by this book that all I wanted to do was read it over and over again. This book would be perfect for a classroom/school project for our teachers and elementary students in our community as they learn the origin of stories behind these infamous mythical beasts and magical creatures. I do have to say my favorite was the kitsune in Japan, these magical foxes that can easily morph into humans and have human developments and emotions. I know our community will respond well to this book and especially if there is a project in the works, it will definitely be well circulated for sure.
  
  We will consider adding this title to our JNon-Fiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.
• 
  Hal

  arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review
  
  I loved this so much! The art was absolutely beautiful. Each page took my breath away and I spent a good amount of time just staring at the illustrations. They were so detailed and colorful! I can just imagine how excited kids are going to be when they get their hands on this.
  
  This was super informative too and in an easy to digest way. We got concise information that was easy to understand and kept me wanting to read more. I loved the fact that a myriad of cultures were shown in here!
  
  Overall, this was a joy to read and I highly recommend this to everyone! If you’re interested in myths and creatures, definitely check this one out!
  
  5/5 ⭐️
• 
  Evelyn

  Gorgeous illustrations, with compellingly told tales/descriptions. Wish some more of the longer pages were dedicated to lesser known mythical creatures as opposed to more popular ones, but lovely overall.
• 
  Mori K

  Very nice, colorful illustrations and interesting descriptions of mythical creatures from around the world.
• 
  Gaea

  4.5 stars
• 
  Mori

  Beautiful art and cool beings from all over the world! That being said, it was a little too superficial for my taste, I'd loved to have dived deeper into all of it.
• 
  Apriel

  I picked this up for my kids but I really enjoyed it too. The illustrations are beautiful!
• 
  Caro

  WOW, amazing colors and illustrations. PERFECT for collections and magical escape. Both kids and adults would loveee this Mythical and Magical book <3 <3 <3
• 
  Sharon Tyler

  The Book of Mythical Beasts and Magical Creatures was written by Stephen Krensky and illustrated by Pham Quang Phuc. It is currently scheduled for release on October 13 2020. In this book readers will meet a cast of mind-boggling fictional animals from all around the world. Say hello to Bigfoot in the forests of North America and learn about the Native American traditions that inspired its story. Voyage to Japan to meet kitsune, supernatural nine-tailed foxes that can turn into humans. And jump onboard an ancient storm-battered ship to learn why mermaids were the last thing a sailor wanted to see. Learn about the societies that spawned these legendary creatures, from Ancient Greece to the indigenous tribes of Australia, and find out what the beasts tell us about the people who created them. From narwhal tusks inspiring the legend of unicorns, to dinosaur bones creating rumors of dragons, there is an interesting story behind every magical beast.
  
  The Book of Mythical Beasts and Magical Creatures is a decent introduction to a wide variety of creatures of myth, religion, and folklore from around the world. I liked that a wide variety of regions and cultures are included, and think the organization of the creatures is well done. The illustrations are bold and eye catching. They do a great job of illustrating the creatures and habitat in question, and keep the interest of readers. I also liked the information on the legends surrounding common animals, the A-Z listing with short summaries of the creatures included, and the glossary included at the back of the book. I did this some of the information on the listed creatures in their large spreads did a good job of showing how some stories are told around the world, with slight variation due to culture, climate, and other factors. However, some bits were a little too simplistic, varied from what I have previously read on the subject, or left of bits that I always found the most interesting. Since mythology and folklore are among my favorite reading subjects, so newcomers and the children most likely to pick this up might not have have the same reactions. It could also be that I have read so many retellings and variations on some of these stories that I could be holding onto favorite bits from more current takes on the subjects than the author and research done here would have considered.
• 
  Christina

  I don't typically include children's books in Goodreads because they're so short and many, but this one is a larger reference book used for teaching this summer so I thought it was worth noting. I liked the colorful, vivid images since each page felt different. The style was pretty consistent in the bold lines and coloring style, but each creature was rendered as individuals rather than all members of a single party, if that makes sense. I appreciated that most of the creatures were given just a two-page spread, which made it easy to photocopy them as a single double-sided sheet of paper to share with the kids and manageable for them to read. The descriptions included a little globe on the corner of the page to indicate the origin of each creature, a nice large picture, and a few paragraphs that describe its geographic/historical origins, basic personality traits, and a few related famous stories. It's true that some of the images were a bit "scary," but that was appropriate for their stories and none of it was egregious and nightmare-inducing, which is good. The categorizations are a bit odd since there are some overlaps and blurry lines, but I see that this is a hard problem to fix: "Our Mysterious World," "Good and Evil," "Tricksters," "Shape-shifters," "Almost Human," "Creatures of the Deep," "Winged Wonders," and "Beasts of the World." Other books organize by geographic/historical origin, but even that can be dicey at times. It would've been nice to have an appendix that organized the creatures by rough geographic origin though, so that kids can quickly compare them that way. But on each page, they include page references to other creatures that are related to the given creature in some way. The back also includes a nice alphabetized list of the creatures. Some pages, like the ones for "Ghosts," "Dragons," "Fairies," "Vampires," and "Witches" include multiple examples under that given category with just one paragraph and smaller image for each individual. That was effective too.
  
  Overall, I think it's a fine starting point for elementary school kids, whetting their appetites to learn more.
• 
  RumBelle

  This book was absolutely extraordinary. From the subjects chosen, to the illustrations, to the text, you were taken on a global journey through myth and legend.
  
  There were 8 chapters in this book, covering creatures such as Winged Wonders, Creatures of the Deep and The Mysterious World. Within each chapter was a selection of mythological beings that fit that description. Many of the creatures in this book I was familiar with, but many more were new to me. That made this book even more interesting and engaging, I got to read myths about so many creatures I had never heard of.
  
  Bake-Kujira was one of my favorite stories. This creature from Japanese mythology is the ghost whale. Said to be the skeleton of a whale killed only for its meat, it haunts the seas and takes revenge on sailors. Like Moby Dick only just a skeleton, not an actual whale. Another was the Rainbow Crow. This creature from Native American legend helped its fellow creatures by bringing fire to them from the Creator Spirit so they could stay warm. Of the creatures I knew, I enjoyed reading about mermaids, unicorns and thunderbirds.
  
  The illustrations in this book were just so vivid, vibrant and amazingly drawn. The colors brought each creature to life in such a creative way. I loved the depictions just as much as reading about them.
  
  In addition to individual creatures there were also groups. For example, the vampires of many different cultures were discussed, as a group, over a two page spread. At the end of the book was a glossary, index and alphabetized list of the creatures discussed.
  
  If you like myths, legends and folklore, explore this wonderful book.
• 
  Andrew

  Travel around the world and meet some of the most mythical and magical creatures of the legendary world!
  The book dives into the world of nearly 105 of these mythic creatures: from vampires, to oceanic creatures, aviator creatures, tricksters, shape-shifters like Jinn and Werewolves, the mostly humanic creatures of Irish and Greek tales, those who represent good and bad including a whole section devoted to Tricksters, and the inexplicable animals who are a part of select countries' origins.
  
  Each section is given highlighted well-told legendary creatures while others showcase multiple international variations of these figures.
  One of the cool tidbits about each creature is that you are given a geographical honing on a globe in the pages' upper-left corner. The other cool factoid I appreciate is the "have humans seen this sight?" or how explorers have found real-live animals that appear to be very similar to a mythical creature, such as the Narwhal or the Manatee.
  Huge props to Pham Quang Phuc for his incredibly detailed and eye-catching illustrations! Huge props to Stephen Krensky for his simplistic but informative text. Another thing I appreciate about Krensky's text is his ability to leave the question open for Children to ask, "What if" or "Are they real?"
• 
  Caspette

  An encyclopaedia of mythical creatures from around the world presented with gorgeous, colourful, illustrations for kids aged 7 and up (and all the way up as this adult thoroughly enjoyed it as well).
  
  The illustrations really do make this book as they are just fabulous. We enjoyed looking at the pictures as much as we liked reading about each creature.
  
  Each creature gets a page of writing about its mythology and where in the world it is from. There is also sometimes some commentary about the country it is from (for instance comparing a mythical snake to a real anaconda for a comparison of size).
  
  The descriptions are not to in depth, or violent as some mythological beast aren’t exactly cute and fluffy. I feel the book did a good job of conveying “bad” vs “safe” mythological creatures in a way that would frighten kids. The descriptions are a great introduction to the mythology of the animal.
  
  Highly recommend to anyone interested in a book that introduces different mythology from around the world.
• 
  Drew Austen

  The Book of Mythical Beasts and Magical Creatures is an exemplary visual guide filled to the brim with information and stunning illustrations. This books is a great foundation for understanding the cultural significance of certain mythical creatures; moreover, this can be used to spark interest of different cultural folklore, as well as give background for creatures that may show up within literature as they get older. At the end of the book, there is an A-Z section that compiles each of the creatures mentioned within the text as an overview, as well as a glossary to help contextualize certain myths and/or locations. I loved that each illustrations and description of a beast or creature was accompanied with a map highlighting where the stories originated and culturally descended from. Overall, I loved this book, and I will be using this in my classroom as both a curricular tool and a part of my classroom library.
• 
  Chris Sudall

  I read 4 pages of this to my 7 year old son, once a night after he had read to me. I bought it because he is really enthused by mythical monsters. He likes drawing them at school!
  Well he totally loved it! The pictures are great and the sheer range of monsters is striking. He looked forward to it every night. I honestly think the person who added the description here made up the 7-9 years.....ok I checked...they got it from Amazon but it says 5-9 there. It doesn't say it anywhere on the book and I think older children would still love it, heck I'm 52 and I loved it too!
  If you have a child who loves monsters you must buy this for them! Highly recommended!
  
  NOTE: I don't usually add children's book to my Goodreads otherwise I'd be way past my reading challenge in a month! Just impressive books or more grown up books that I read the entirety of.
• 
  Elizabeth

  I really liked this book. It was easy to read, the illustrations were gorgeous, and under the tricksters chapter, when Loki was saved for last, the illustration was DEFINITELY MCU-influenced, with the exception of his nose being a tad too big, it looked EXACTLY like Tom Hiddleston (right down to the long, wavy black hair, pale, pointed chin, and even the inclusion of his helmet with the horns). I also liked the fact that there were so many creatures from around the world and little maps that showed you where they came from. It's by no means complete, but it's an excellent book to have in your mythic and magical creatures library. My favorite chapters have to be on Creatures of the Deep, Tricksters, and Shapeshifters.