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A review by skeleton_richard
Don't Let the Beasties Escape This Book! by Julie Berry
5.0
I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.
This is a delightful book for anyone who likes manuscripts, beasts both real and fantastic, and stories about kids with overactive imaginations. Godfrey (or, as he sees himself, SIR Godfrey) is a medieval boy who would rather look at the bestiary in production for the lady of the castle than do his chores, and much like the Sorcerer's Apprentice, he imagines the creatures described in the bestiary helping him.
The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, in part based on manuscripts in an exhibit at the Getty, and somehow April Lee manages to draw in a modern style that feels medieval. The one drawback of having to read this on my computer is that it's meant to be read as a physical book, with illustrations often spanning a two-page spread, which is frustrating when you have to zoom in to read the text. This is no fault of the book or its creators, just a comment that you should get a physical copy (I have no idea if it will be released digitally) because that's the best way to read something like this. Like the bestiaries they replicate, the pictures are colorful and lively, with something fun happening even in the smallest details.
The book ends with a historical note that puts bestiaries, and what medieval people got from them, into context-- most people had no real way of knowing what was out in the world far away, and many of the creatures were actually believable-- compared to a rhino, a unicorn doesn't sound all that strange. I really like this. There's a major misconception in our popular culture that people in the Middle Ages were stupid and believed ridiculous things like unicorns, dog-headed people, that the Earth is flat (which they didn't, by the way). The truth is they weren't stupid, they just didn't have the cumulative knowledge we have today, and many things medieval people believed, or at least what they presented as some level of factual, aren't really that strange considering the information they had. Bestiaries are a good example of this, and this book portrays that well. It also includes a section of descriptions and images of creatures from actual bestiaries, which is another good historical note.
This is definitely a book I hope to someday have a physical copy of to read to my young cousins in the hopes that they'll become medievalists. Or at least in the hopes they'll like it.
This is a delightful book for anyone who likes manuscripts, beasts both real and fantastic, and stories about kids with overactive imaginations. Godfrey (or, as he sees himself, SIR Godfrey) is a medieval boy who would rather look at the bestiary in production for the lady of the castle than do his chores, and much like the Sorcerer's Apprentice, he imagines the creatures described in the bestiary helping him.
The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, in part based on manuscripts in an exhibit at the Getty, and somehow April Lee manages to draw in a modern style that feels medieval. The one drawback of having to read this on my computer is that it's meant to be read as a physical book, with illustrations often spanning a two-page spread, which is frustrating when you have to zoom in to read the text. This is no fault of the book or its creators, just a comment that you should get a physical copy (I have no idea if it will be released digitally) because that's the best way to read something like this. Like the bestiaries they replicate, the pictures are colorful and lively, with something fun happening even in the smallest details.
The book ends with a historical note that puts bestiaries, and what medieval people got from them, into context-- most people had no real way of knowing what was out in the world far away, and many of the creatures were actually believable-- compared to a rhino, a unicorn doesn't sound all that strange. I really like this. There's a major misconception in our popular culture that people in the Middle Ages were stupid and believed ridiculous things like unicorns, dog-headed people, that the Earth is flat (which they didn't, by the way). The truth is they weren't stupid, they just didn't have the cumulative knowledge we have today, and many things medieval people believed, or at least what they presented as some level of factual, aren't really that strange considering the information they had. Bestiaries are a good example of this, and this book portrays that well. It also includes a section of descriptions and images of creatures from actual bestiaries, which is another good historical note.
This is definitely a book I hope to someday have a physical copy of to read to my young cousins in the hopes that they'll become medievalists. Or at least in the hopes they'll like it.