Jessica Roux

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, show more 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. show less

***who sucked me in***
Beautiful Books on YouTube in their
40 Most Beautiful Books of 2020 | A Holiday Gift Guide video published on wo 2 Dec. 2020

But the books can also be found on their website: https://beautifulbooks.info/2020/12/most-beautiful-books-of-2020-a-holiday-gift-...

***Reason why I want to read it***
I have loved fairies since a child. My mom would point out trees that grew a certain way that it looked like it had a door. And sometimes some of the trees had furniture outside the show more 'door' (seriously thank you people who do this!). Also if mushrooms grew in a certain pattern she would tell us that leprechauns would dine there. My mom is very level-headed so I would kinda believe her when she told this.
Which is weird because I heard those kind of stories only after I was 8.

It was from that age I also began reading the old 'classic' fairy tales. Those from German, Scotland and Ireland. As a kid who grew up with comics and cartoons about superheroes, the fairy tales gave me the same feeling. Both terrifying. Both had some moral components to them. Both let me escape.

But the fairy tales never had people who looked like me or my mum (no not my mom). They had tigers, lions, dragons but every time someone looked like my mum the were called or portrayed as 'savage'. Which fine, historical perspective and all, still I'm glad that my mom also got fairy tales books which included tales from different countries, religions and cultures.

So when I saw the first few pages of A Natural History of Fairies it drew me in because it looked gorgeous but I also scoffed. Of course it had tigers and lions but only light-skinned fairies... UNTIL SHE FLIPPED THE PAGES!

First a saw a somewhat darker-skinned fairy and yes my first thought was: "Oh that's actually nice to include someone who actually looks somewhat like a person from India. Still a token effort though." OEH BOY I WAS WRONG.

A fairy with a big ass 'fro. I'm not ashamed to admit that I teared up. Even writing this I'm tearing up. Child-me wouldn't get this, but Adult-Me couldn't be any more delighted.

What most people don't seem to get when they are asking why representation matters is this: if you include animals from all over the world but still pair them up with light-skinned people you willfully ignore the people who actually live next to these animals. You imply something and to me that is:

"This world isn't meant for you. Your story isn't worth telling and you will never be included in mine. We still like the animals though."

Bit dramatic but even so, it does feel like that at times.

So I want to own this book. I want to flip through this at multiple times in my life. I want to remember my love for fairies and indulge (wentelen) in the feeling that Child-Me wouldn't have to look for other stories that included her. show less

The illustrations in this book are outstanding: detailed and well-researched they are an entire page for every bird.
The text itself is short, varied, focused on symbology, lore and tradition. I loved that there were birds and legends from all over the world, most of them steeped in ancient stories.
It is structured alphabetically with an index for quick reference. I usually give away my books but I'm keeping this one for its artistry and research.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Taking inspiration from the stunning cover, I would say this book reflects the author love of flowers (rose) and her wisdom (iris) treating the subject matter with humility and faithfulness (bluebell). This book is full of beauty, the illustrations are gorgeous, and I love that the entries for the flowers are concise but comprehensive. I have seen other illustrated flower dictionaries before, but two things set this book show more apart: the addition of herbs as well as flowers and the inclusion of the last section for bouquets arrangement (it is good to have a place to start when wanting to create a bouquet and there is so much individual information). And again, that cover...stunning. show less