Cryptid Creatures

I bought this for my 8 year old son who loves mythology and mysterious creature stories. He loves it and so does my 5 year old daughter. I was cautious at first thinking maybe it would be scary for them but it's not. A nice touch that we all like about this book is that along with every cryptid drawing, there is also a drawing of the baby or juvenile of the same kind. Some of those pictures are really cute and my kids love them.

Formatted like a field guide, "Cryptid Creatures" presents its subject as if your next hike into the woods might bring you face to face with some towering anthropoid or extinction-defying pterosaur in need of positive identification. Halls' brisk, uncynical prose fills the pages with information about location, year first sighted, eye-witness accounts, creature behavior, and a believability star rating ranging from confirmed hoax (eg., Piltdown Man) to confirmed reality (eg., Hogzilla). While aimed at kids -- and what kid isn't fascinated by these critters at some point? -- the text is not in any way condescending or dumbed-down; this guide is for anyone who is interested in these mysterious creatures which tell us as much about ourselves as they do about the world outside ourselves. The field guide conceit offers illustrator Spears with the opportunity to flex his mad imagination-meets-natural history skills to render what these creatures might look like not only as intimidating adults, but also as cute babies, or what the skull of a half-human/half-fish (or -wolf or -ape, etc.) might look like were you to trip over one lying on the forest floor. You can tell Spears had a field day bringing these beasts to life with a style that mixes a sketch-artist confidence with well-observed detail and a knowledge of anatomical morphology. My only niggles are that a couple of the illustrations fall across the gutter, making them hard to see, and the light yellow-orange text in places is a little hard for readers like me to see well in low light. Also, I did see a Trumpish misspelling of the country Namibia (Nambia) in one spot, in an otherwise well-edited and proofread text. All in all, a fun resource for all ages.

I read all of it and it is a nice book, but I think my grandson fell in love with it. Ended up giving it to him because he just loved looking up cryptids

Love everything about it

This collection of cryptids is fun for all ages. Whetehr the author is describing a potentially real animal or a totally silly one (beware the dropbears!), she writes engagingly, and the wonderful illustrations of baby cryptids are a treat.

My granddaughter was checking this book out of the local library every chance she got, so I had a copy sent to her so that she would always be able to have her favorite book. The thing she loves most about it is that it shows the “baby” version of all the cryptids.

Bought this for my imaginative eight year old, who has spent weeks pretending to catch cryptids, drawing cryptids, memorizing facts about cryptids, and talking to me about cryptids. As a gift, this couldn’t have gone over better, or offered a greater return on my investment. Recommended for smart, artsy, slightly strange kids everywhere!

This book is awesome, so much better than some of the reviews I read - COME ON GUYS. Very cool stylized art, illustrations are done by Rick Spears who I will now look into. Perfect gift for my perfectly geeky 8 year old who loooooves cryptids and everything strange. Great little articles about each creature, a perfectly done book.