John D. Wright (1) (1938–)

My 7-year-old loves to watch a show called Monster Quest on YouTube. (Wikipedia tells me it was originally broadcast on the "History" Channel.



There's a lot of overlap between that show and this book. It cracked me up when he saw the picture of the Jersey Devil in the book and announced that it wasn't sufficiently realistic. Roight.

The book is divided up into categories:
Creatures from the Deep (including the Loch Ness Monster)
Yeti, Bigfoot, and other Giants
Goblins, Gremlins, and Goatman show more (the Jersey Devil apparently fits this category)
Wildcats, Birds, and Bats (including Chupacabra)
Ghosts and Ghouls
The Unexplained (Bermuda Triangle, Roswell, etc.)

Each entry gets a two page spread with a large picture on one page, text and smaller picture on the other. There's an explanation in normal size print, then additional info in smaller print, a "Where in the World?" box with a small map of where the creature has been spotted or events took place, and a "Did You Know?" section with exactly three bulleted "facts."

The pictures are all kind of cheesy and Photoshopped together and there's a fair amount of repetition between the explanation and "Did You Know?" sections. There are some scary elements, considering it's a book about monsters and ghosts, but it's kept to a PG level. The most horrifying part for me was having to explain to my son why a baby would be "unwanted" to the extent that its mother would throw it off of "Cry Baby Bridge."

As an introduction to the unexplained for kids who are interested, this does well. I think it's worth the $8.99 Scholastic apparently charged, or, in my case, a PaperBackSwap credit. show less

Reading Sections were short paragraphs with nice sidebars and many interesting photos and real life story's. Some inaccuracies in the final chapters dealing with history of fingerprinting. Overall a good read.

Horrible graphics/illustrations and some of the information was conflicting at times, and often left out more of the story.

Very fun read :)