Review Detail

Alphabeasts went beyond my initial expectations. I expected to find an ABC concept book filled with imaginary monsters. What the story is about are case files of mythical monsters from around the world and we are allowed to see the classified files from A-Z. Therefore, I did not give my usual scrutiny that the initial letters start with the most common sound featured because an older child, likely one that is not reading this to learn the alphabet, is the audience for this story. The illustrations were fun and colorful. However, given that these animals are from mythology a more realistic rendering would have been neat but would have made it scarier for younger audiences. As it was, I found mythological creatures that I knew about and plenty that were new to me making this a fascinating read. Overall, this was an unexpectedly delightful book featuring many mythological creatures from around the world. I do wonder why none from Australia were featured once I saw them all on the map in the back of the book.