Beasts!
By Jacob Covey (editor)
The art director for cartoon publisher Fantagraphics assembled more than a hundred envelope-pushing artists and cartoonists to illustrate this mythological menagerie. Fantagraphics, 2007. ISBN: 156097768X
The Book of Imaginary Beings
By Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley, illustrated by Peter Sís
Borges’ lauded, whimsical bestiary gets a new translation and spectacular art in this edition. More than a hundred unconventional animals walk, fly, and swim through its sweep of world mythology and literature. Viking, 2005. ISBN: 0-670-89180-0
Cryptozoology A To Z : The Encyclopedia Of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature
By Loren Coleman & Jerome Clark
An encyclopedia editor and a cryptozoologist teamed up to create the first encyclopedia of its kind. Its nearly 200 entries include drawings and photographs from eyewitness accounts of unusual animal sightings. Observational methods and discovery tales abound. Fireside, 1999. ISBN: 0684856026
Greek Gods, Human Lives: What We Can Learn from Myths
By Mary Lefkowitz
Lefkowitz dives into Greek epics such as The Iliad and The Odyssey to explore how these ancient tales speak to aspects of humanity still relevant today. Yale University Press, 2005. ISBN: 0300107692
The Unicorn Treasury: Stories, Poems, and Unicorn Lore
By Bruce Coville
Madeleine L'Engle, Jane Yolen, C. S. Lewis, Myra Cohn Livingston, and the author himself, among many others, relate original poems and stories as well as folktales about the mystical unicorn. Magic Carpet Books, 2004. ISBN: 015205216X
Additional Recommendations
Chronicles of Prydain series, Lloyd Alexander
Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey
Eldest, Christopher Paolini
Eragon, Christopher Paolini
Mythology, Edith Hamilton
A Wizard of Earthsea series, Ursula K. LeGuin
For additional high school books, see the Mythic Creatures Booklist for Adults.