The Little Encyclopedia of Enchanted Woodland Creatures: An A-to-Z Guide to Mythical Beings of the Forest by Jason Lancaster

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

I picked this one up because I had rather enjoyed The Little Encyclopedia of Fairies:  An A-to-Z Guide to Fae Magic.  It had brief entries but the worldwide focus was interesting. Enchanted Woodland Creatures has equally brief entries and a worldwide focus but the choices for inclusion seem a bit… odd.  I think it’s the word “enchanted” in the main title. 

You see, there are entries for Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil, and even Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox which I don’t really see as being “enchanted.” Folkloric, yes.  Enchanted, no.  The same can be said of several other entries. The subtitle Mythical Beings of the Forest is more accurate, but there's also an entry for a real bird though a bit of folklore connected with it is included. 

That said, there are some interesting entries for both mythological creatures as well as cryptids.  The entries are very brief, and some are accompanied by illustrations by Kate Forrester. I like her style and it’s worth looking through the book for those alone.  Only the cover is in color; the rest are black and white, and some look as they might be woodcuts or else pen and ink.  I thought they were charming.  In fact, I liked them well enough that I searched for the artist online and found she’s done a number of book covers. She is now on my radar as an artist I admire.

The limited information given in the entries was interesting, and I did like the long list of sources at the end.  The entries are well written.  This is a fun browsing book, despite the sometimes perplexing choices.

I did enjoy it, even if I didn’t fit it into a Book Bingo square.