Mythic Creatures Booklist: High School & Adult

• The Book of Fabulous Beasts: A Treasury of Writings from Ancient Times to the Present
  By Joseph Nigg
  This collection of Western writings about fantastic creatures includes excerpts from the Bible, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, and others. Arranged chronologically to follow classical, medieval, Renaissance, and modern periods of Western history.
  Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0195095618

• Dragons: A Natural History
  By Karl P. N. Shuker
  Lavish illustrations and photography of ancient art and artifacts make this an accessible “field guide” for adults and teenagers alike. Discusses five major classes of dragons and other mythic creatures.
  Simon & Schuster, 1995. ISBN: 0684814439

• The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times.
  By Adrienne Mayor
  Science historian Adrienne Mayor explores the natural history origins of mythic giants, griffins, and dragons from paleontological finds in the Mediterranean.
  Princeton University Press, 2001. ISBN: 0691089779

• Guide to the Imaginary Birds of the World
  By Joe Nigg
  Nigg re-crafts traditional “big bird” stories from all over the world in a riff on the nature guide format—but with woodcuts instead of photography. Roger Tory Peterson, the originator of Peterson Field Guides, offers the introduction.
  Apple-wood Books, 1984. ISBN: 0918222559

• Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales: A Selection
  By Hans Christian Andersen, Naomi Lewis (Introduction)
   Twenty-six of Andersen’s original tales, including The Little Mermaid, as translated by Naomi Lewis.
  Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 0192835076

• Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Creatures, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors
  By David D. Gilmore
  A thoughtful, in-depth, scholarly study of the fantastic creatures that abound in myth, legend, and folklore around the world.
  University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. ISBN: 0812237021

• Monsters of the Sea
  By Richard Ellis
  Turn to Richard Ellis’s exhaustively researched book for a mix of myths, natural history, art, and literature about the kraken, mermaids, the Loch Ness monster, Leviathan, and many more monstrous water creatures—some real, some not. Includes original-source art and first-hand accounts of sea monster encounters. Ellis is a biologist, marine painter, and a co-curator of the exhibition.
  Knopf, 1994. ISBN: 0679406395

• Origins of Story: On Writing for Children
  By Barbara Harrison & Gregory Maguire
  Seventeen essays by Maurice Sendak, Susan Cooper, Madeleine L'Engle, and others that explore using myth as metaphor and other processes of creative writing.
  Margaret K. McElderry, 1999. ISBN : 0689826044

• Wonder Beasts: Tales and Lore of the Phoenix, the Griffin, the Unicorn, and the Dragon
  By Joe Nigg
  Full of stories from early explorers, travelers, and scholars all over the world, this compendium of wonderful beasts makes for an interesting read of “primary sources.” Includes engravings and other illustrations.
  Libraries Unlimited, 1995. ISBN: 156308242X

Additional Recommendations

• Beowulf, Seamus Heaney

• The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights)

• The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

• The Lord of the Rings series, J.R.R. Tolkien

• The Odyssey, Homer (Robert Fagles translation)

• The Travels of Marco Polo

 

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