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somanybooks2's review against another edition
4.0
I want to thank #netgalley for giving me a copy of #TheBigBookOfMonsters to review. This is a good introduction book to famous monsters. Readers get a background story then a short story about each of the monsters. The illustrations are good. It wasn't what I was expecting, but still a book I would recommend to students.
imjustcupcake's review against another edition
4.0
I wasn't really sure what I was going to get from this book until I started reading through it. I knew I was going to get monsters, of course, but I didn't know which ones or pay attention to where the monsters that were going to be discussed would be coming from.
Well, wouldn't you know it...a lot of the monsters have come from stories and written work! Some of the monsters detailed within I knew about in some form or another. Others, I knew from having read the actual work that they are featured in!
The way the book works is - it gives you a quick synopsis of the story the monster is from. Then after that it will give you some other information relating to some aspect of the monsters story. It may be a tidbit about the time period it came from, it may be a random fact in regards to the author, and it may even be other works where you can find similar monsters! And some of these I found really interesting.
Now, as I said, I knew some of the monsters in the book before this from having read the actual source they are from. I found the quick run down for those monsters a nice little refresher of their story. Then for the monsters I had heard about before, but had not read about I found that I really had no idea what their stories were actually about! I had no knowledge about The Invisible Man except for the part where he is invisible... Now I know the synopsis of that book and it has definitely made me want to read the book so I can experience him in full!
Also, what is nice, is at the end of the book it gives some great resources. There are some suggested readings, other monsters to look into and where to find them, some tips on picking translations for those that were not written in English in the first place, etc.
However, I will say that I was not a huge fan of the artwork, but that is very much just my own opinion. I am also not a person in their targeted audience as this book is clearly aimed at older elementary and middle school kids. I know my 6 year old found them a bit spooky, where I found them usually too bright and too cartoonish for my liking.
All in all, I enjoyed this book and the quick bits I got about literature and mythical monsters. It was a great refresher for the ones I have read and a nice introduction into the ones I haven't encountered yet.
This review is based on an advanced reading copy. All thoughts and opinions are mine and I received nothing in exchange for this review.
Well, wouldn't you know it...a lot of the monsters have come from stories and written work! Some of the monsters detailed within I knew about in some form or another. Others, I knew from having read the actual work that they are featured in!
The way the book works is - it gives you a quick synopsis of the story the monster is from. Then after that it will give you some other information relating to some aspect of the monsters story. It may be a tidbit about the time period it came from, it may be a random fact in regards to the author, and it may even be other works where you can find similar monsters! And some of these I found really interesting.
Now, as I said, I knew some of the monsters in the book before this from having read the actual source they are from. I found the quick run down for those monsters a nice little refresher of their story. Then for the monsters I had heard about before, but had not read about I found that I really had no idea what their stories were actually about! I had no knowledge about The Invisible Man except for the part where he is invisible... Now I know the synopsis of that book and it has definitely made me want to read the book so I can experience him in full!
Also, what is nice, is at the end of the book it gives some great resources. There are some suggested readings, other monsters to look into and where to find them, some tips on picking translations for those that were not written in English in the first place, etc.
However, I will say that I was not a huge fan of the artwork, but that is very much just my own opinion. I am also not a person in their targeted audience as this book is clearly aimed at older elementary and middle school kids. I know my 6 year old found them a bit spooky, where I found them usually too bright and too cartoonish for my liking.
All in all, I enjoyed this book and the quick bits I got about literature and mythical monsters. It was a great refresher for the ones I have read and a nice introduction into the ones I haven't encountered yet.
This review is based on an advanced reading copy. All thoughts and opinions are mine and I received nothing in exchange for this review.
etienne02's review
3.0
I had higher expectation from this one. The concept is good, the illustrations also are, but the content is a bit light/easy for me. This book presents a lot of monster from a variety of cultural reference (movie, literature, sometimes both, and more). The monster is presented in a short story and after you have some information on where it came from, in other words, the story behind the story. It might be good for kids you want to learn about monster and discover news one, but for me, even if I know I wasn’t the targeted reader, who is interest in horror for two decades, well... I didn’t discover much new stuff here. I still give it a decent rating, since it was clearly for a younger public. I think it is a good book, but I also think it has the potential to be much better!!
sg6712's review
3.0
3.5 out of 5. Loved the art, but I think the organization was a bit lacking. I dont think alphabetical was the best, personally I think chronological to when these monsters were first introduced would have made more sense and not have felt so disorganized. There were also parts where the writing seemed to imply things that were not true. A great intro to the topic and still an enjoyable read.
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