Pauline Baynes gives us a great collection of some of the real and not-so-real creatures that were encoporated into bestiaries during the middle ages. My favorite beastie is the Bonnacon. The illustrations are beautiful, historically accurate, and imaginative. This book will definitely get readers excited about a time when people saw the world much differently than they do now.

A collection of odd and unusual "facts" about a hotch-potch of beasts, both real and mythical, culled from various medieval bestiaries and plonked on the page with about as much panache as a dinner lady serving mashed potato at an infant school.

Ah, but the illustrations are little jewel-like confections, lovingly crafted by a Michelin-starred pâtissière. I love you, Pauline Baynes! ( )

The introduction to this book explains the idea of medieval bestiaries, or books that described all of the known creatures of the world. The book itself takes those descriptions from medieval bestiaries and explains them along with illustrations in the medieval style. The descriptions of the animals include what real animal a description might match.

I enjoyed reading some of the fantastical descriptions of mythological beasts. I also enjoyed some of the very off the wall things that were once believed about real modern animals.

curriculum connection - Write a description of an animal you think should be included in a bestiary. The animal can either be real, mythological or one that you have made up yourself.

This is a really interesting book for people of all ages. Young children will find the beasts amusing, and adults will probably laugh when they read that people at one time believed that they actually existed. ( )