A NATURAL HISTORY OF MAGICAL BEASTS
EMILY HAWKINS (illus. Jessica Roux)
Frances Lincoln Children's Books
$30.00 deluxe hardcover, available now
Rating: 5* of five
The Publisher Says: 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?
A Natural History of Magical Beasts is a complete guide to magical creatures from around the world, from their lifecycles and behaviour to how they have hidden themselves from human discovery for centuries.
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.
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.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Another entry in this beautiful series of narratives emulating the dark-academia vibe so very popular at the moment. Sweetening the academia part, and encouraging the habits of mind characteristic of a scientist, is the magical-creature focus. It can't be learning if it's this pretty and this much fun to read, right?
Take advantage of this creative duo's gift of an opening to you, gift-giver:
The kid won't know what hit 'em. They'll be totally suckered in by the gorgeous illustrations and won't notice they're learning valuable observation and classification skills. They won't see how easy it is to transfer these habits of mind to real-world learning, or to use this storytelling framework to parse and quantify even newly exposed information, until you or the parent make it plain.
Sneaking education into their story books is genius. The duo responsible for this series is to be supported, preferably with your purchase of this item for the middle-grade story-lover on your gifting list who isn't very interested in the more concrete forms of school-learning. Got to sneak past the gates somehow, and this is a terrific trojan horse.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS
EMILY HAWKINS (illus. Jessica Roux)
Frances Lincoln Children's Books
$30.00 deluxe hardcover, available now
Rating: 5* of five
The Publisher Says: Dragons have been the misunderstood subject of folklore for generations . . . but are these stories just legends or is there any truth to these majestic creatures’ fiery reputations?
Presented as a handbook from the late 1800s written for the students of the Academie Solomonar: the only school for dragon-riders, this beautiful volume sets out to reveal the hidden world of dragons. Within these pages you will meet mysterious and majestic dragons from around the globe, read about ancient lore and superstitions, learn about their life cycle, anatomy, habits and habitats, and discover the secrets behind dragon flight.
This exquisitely illustrated album, that delves deep into the world of dragons, will delight all true-believers and fantasy enthusiasts.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: First in a series from this author and artist duo, all offering a middle-grade reader an independent reading experience similar to the narrative non-fiction they'll be accustomed to. A younger reader, say seven or eight, might struggle a bit as the vocabulary and the ideas are possibly just out of reach...but the object is gorgeous and could inspire them to make the needed cognitive leap if dragons are already of interest to them.
The framing device, letters and notes of a student dragon rider, is bang on the trend for dark academia in the YA fiction world. The artwork is so beautiful that the reader's older sibling, if any, might purloin the book for a good look...possibly an appropriation if the sibling in question's already reading dark-academia books. Look at these beautiful pages, and tell me you can't see that fight brewing:
I'd say the right giftee for this, and its series sibling books, is curious about the story universe, is smart in the academic ways but not very interested in "uncreative" subjects like science, and could use a nudge to see that it's all stories...just some aren't fiction.
This read could give the giver a chance to show the giftee how to find the story in reality. Strong recommendation from me.
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