I love a good blend of mythology and the style of nonfiction. This book is informational and fun to read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a coffee table book half-filled with dragons and half-filled with mythological creatures of different kinds and from different sources. All in all, it accomplishes that much, at least.

The art was decidedly mediocre, in my opinion. It wasn't necessarily bad, but it didn't meet the expectations set by the striking cover. The dragons, honestly, looked pretty good in the art style, but the back half of the book, the mythical creatures, didn't go as well. In fact, I'd say that's the theme throughout the book.

The dragons are done relatively well, come from numerous sources, and the information is solid. The mythical creatures, on the other hand, are very Greek-centric. Then there's the issue of the humanoids. There are named people listed as mythical creatures. The art for the humanoids is bad, and overall, the entries just don't fit the tone I was expecting. The last entry, for example, is Saruman, from Lord of the Rings. Why? I can only assume because the authors/publisher got rights to Lord of the Rings characters or some of them and decided Saruman, somehow, was a good choice.

Then there's the inconsistency with the entries. There are four sections for each entry. There's a larger-text description, a smaller-text follow-up, a Where in the world? section, and a Did you know? section. For some of the entries, all four of these sections differ in content. For some, three of the four sections are used to tell sequential events in the story revolving around the creature/dragon.

Overall, the art is lacking, the choice for what to include and what to exclude, especially from the mythical creatures section, and the general inconsistencies throughout the book left me more disappointed than anything. I'm giving this a 2.5-star rating. It's not bad, necessarily, but it's definitely disappointing and not particularly good, either.

I felt this was a good introduction to mythical creatures for anyone interested in them. The illustrations were well done and there was some interesting facts about each. I recommend for anyone with this kind of interest.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

This is a beautiful book! Full of amazing full colour illustrations of various kinds of dragons and related creatures and other mythical beasties. Most I had heard of but there were some new to me too!

Snippets of information and 'Did you know' sections inform the reader of accepted legend or any actual creatures that might have inspired the myths. A hard copy of this would make a great coffee table book.

Dragons & Mythical Creatures. By Gerrie McCall; Chris McNab. 2020. Amber Books Ltd. (ARC eBook).

Dragons & Mythical Creatures a full of colorful and labeled depictions of dragons and creatures while telling the myths behind each one, including charts for size comparisons between humans and the creatures; as well as maps showing where the creatures hail from. Each entry also has extra facts, either about the specific creature or other related myths and folklore.

From Wales and Japan to Middle Earth, some stories highlight the cunning of the creatures or the good fortune they bestow. And others show the greed with their hoarding treasure and enormous appetites. The demise of the dangerous ones can take great feats of strength or creativity; such as Knucker being thwarted by gulping down a poisoned pie or Orochi, whose body is so large and long that moss and trees grow upon it, and who can’t resist the temptation of rice wine. The heroes/heroines are knights such as St. George, future kings such as Jason of the Argonauts, and burglars such as Bilbo Baggins. And I can’t forget the Swedish hero, Ragnar Hairy-Pants.

And very entertaining and informative read. The illustrations are wonderful and I swear the Jersey Devil is about to fly off the page!

A cool reference book on dragons and other mythical critters. The part with the other creatures is interesting; there's a hodge-podge of creatures covered here, not just from myths, folklore creatures and cryptids are covered as well. The stars of the book are the dragons, though. So many different dragons are covered, from all over the world, with all kinds of fun little tidbits about them! It makes for a fascinating read. The artwork is pretty groovy, and I appreciated having the size comparison illustration for each dragon and creature, along with a map showing location.

#DragonsMythicalCreatures #NetGalley

A kind of encyclopedia of all kinds of mythological creatures, it may be a good reading for kids and a good introduction to world folklore/myths. As for myself, I was a little disappointed, I expected a different and better art style and a more comprehensive and less repetitive style of writing about each creature.

Absolutely wonderful reference for children! The illustrations are absolutely fantastic and the book is very well written this is a great introduction to myths, folklore and legends. I highly recommend this for anyone loving fantasy and mythical creatures!

I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

I think it's a book that will be loved by any fantasy lovers. I loved the illustrations and the explanations for each dragon.
It was a fun and engrossing read, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I was expecting so much from this book. But the main disappointment was the art style, which lessened my enjoyment of the book greatly.

This book focuses mainly on dragons from literature and myths and legends and then adds a couple of other famous mythological creatures. I didn't like the written bios of each creature that much, especially since that "Did You Know.." part would sometimes talk about another creature or repeat stuff that were already said or say something like "dragons prefer to eat humans"... which made me think, why even put that?

All in all, I was disappointed, I expected a different and better art style and a more comprehensive style of writing about each creature.

I thank Netgalley and Amber Books for the digital ARC.

I have read so much better illustrated versions of these mythical creatures, this feels lacking however still a decent book.

This is all I ever wanted in a book growing up beautiful pictures and dragons! What else do you really need?
The descriptions is just glorious

If this book had come out ten years ago, my daughter would be begging for a copy.  It is the 'dragons only' version of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  Jam-packed with color illustrations of every kind of dragon that a kid can dream up, this is a book that kids will absolutely love.

This is an interesting illustrated book about Dragons and Other Mythical Creatures from around the world.

The book is split into 6 sections, with the first 3 about Dragons and the last 3 on Other Mythical Creatures:
Mythological Dragons
Ancient Mythical Dragons
Dragons in Literature
Ancient Myths and Legends
Classic Folk Tales
Literature and the Movies

Each Dragon or Creature that is described comes with a colour illustration, description, size comparison to a human, it's location or locations in the world and a Did you Know section. Some of the illustrations that include people look a little odd though.

Whilst the book is divided into sections and the section title is at the top of the page to denote you have moved on there is not a whole page to show this; without this I nearly missed that I had gone on a section, and it would have been nice to have an introduction to each section too.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

Just wow. This book is absolutely a dream to read. It is very well written. I love how each section are into to sub parts the first been dragons and the other mystical macgial creatures.The art is work is so graphically amazing and well done it feels like the creatures are coming out of the book. If you are an epic fantasy lover or even just a fantasy lover this book is for you.
They come from all over the world - Europe's Beowulf's Dragon or Cretan Minotaur are represented, but also Asian, African, or American examples. You can find Tolkien's Smaug, Glaurung, as well as Harry Potter's Norwegian Ridgeback and so many more

Thanks to NetGalley for a providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book hits a sweet spot for those folks interested in myths and legends from around the world, The focus of the first half of the book is on dragons, when the last half on other mythological creatures such as bigfoot and the loch ness serpent. The individual entries are fiarly well organized, with a large illustration that calls out notable features (breath, scales, special abilities, etc.) followed by a summary page with a very short text block; a small map locating the myth in the world; a size comparison illustration; a brief myth excerpt and finally a trivia block (Do you know). Over all, I liked the approximately 80 entries, but I did see several items that made it difficult to get it full marks ...

The illustrations were very inconsistant and generally of low quality, similar to what you might find in a toddler picture book. For something that I was have liked to be a quality coffee table book, this is a serious short coming. Unfortunately, the shorter entries make it unsuitable as sold reference book. Finally ... the general organization, I don't think this is something a person would sit down a read cover to cover ... they are more likley looking for something specific (especially after the first time through. While it dies have an index, it would have been better if the creature entries were in alphabetical order. In addition, there are some specifically named creatures that be in their own section ...

Over all, this book was interesting, but not great.

I was given this free advance review copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

This for me was a book I expected way more from.

The cover is nothing like the artwork within the book and I was very disappointed. I expected some amazing artwork and extensive information but the book really let me down. If you bought this based on the cover you would be sorely disappointed!

The drawings are as though drawn by a child and the information is a patchwork of facts, fiction, folklawetc and even though the quantity of types of dragons and mythical creatures was great it just didn't make up for it for me.

This book is a book children will enjoy.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley for review.

Dragons and Mythical Creatures is first and foremost a fact book. It features a wide range of creatures and many many facts about them.

Things I liked:
- The book Dragons and Mythical Creatures featured 80+ dragons and mythical creatures and they were separated into categories like Mythological Dragons, Dragons in Literature, Classic Folk Tales etc...
- Each creature featured a drawing that had labeled facts about their features.
- For each one they showed the location they were found on a map
- They also had a picture showing the size comparison of the creature vs a human.

Things I didn't like:
- For each dragon or creature the authors attempted to tell a small story. I thought this was a great idea but my problem with it is that the sentences in the the tales are short and clipped. It lent a robotic tone to the narrative and made me wonder what the point of the story was. It felt like I was just reading more facts.
- The entire book felt very disjointed and sporadic.

It was really interesting to learn about new dragons and creatures that I hadn't known about previously. But this book just scratches the surface and at times it was hard to follow along. It was also painful to read because there it just didn't flow.

The information in this book was decent but nothing to write home about.

The illustrations look like they were pulled straight from a low budget video game.

My kids and I really enjoyed this book the art work was very good and we enjoyed the little stories that went along with each creature. I definitely recommend this book to anyone that enjoys mythical creatures and learning about them.