Werewolves

by Nancy Garden

Discusses superstitions, practices, and beliefs concerning werewolves throughout history

Genres: Werewolves, Nonfiction, Horror

127 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

A versatile writer, Nancy Garden has published books for children as well as for teens, nonfiction as well as fiction. But her novel Annie on My Mind, the story of two high school girls who fall in love with each other, has brought her more attention than she wanted when it was burned in front of the Kansas City School Board building in 1993 and banned from school library shelves in Olathe, Kansas, as well as other school districts. A group of high school students and their parents in Olathe had to sue the school board in federal district court in order to get the book back on the library shelves. Today the book is as controversial as ever, in spite of its being viewed by many as one of the most important books written for teens in the past forty years. In 2003 the American Library Association gave the Margaret A. Edwards Award to Nancy Garden for lifetime achievement.

In Remembrance: Nancy Garden

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book provides a broad overview of every aspect of werewolf lore to date, I suspect. Its breadth and scope is magnificent. No portion of werewolf lore goes unmentioned.

Sadly, that's all that is good about it. What does not get mentioned is the source material the recounting is drawn from. Is the bit of werewolf lore being mentioned from a titled Stevenson 1892 short story, an Irish folk lay with its title, source, and approximate date of composition provided, or from a 1935 film starring so and so, film script written by so and so, based on this text? Specifics like these are completely lacking. Nothing is ever cited.

There is no index, no bibliography. Even worse, the bits of lore are presented in completely random, anecdotal fashion. For example, Chapter 2 is titled "Shapeshifters." Well, yes, werewolves do shift shapes to become werewolves. With parameters set this wide, the author can discuss virtually any aspect of werewolfdom she cares to. And she does. But the lack of systemic organization makes the book almost worthless. It's just party chatter about werewolves, not a serious study at all.

Three positive points of the book should be mentioned: 1) It can be obtained at no cost at the Internet Archive. 2) It's brief; just 127 pages. 3) It contains lots of really cool pictures and photos.

[no elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun lil (very short!) book on werewolves seemingly drawn from folklore and fiction. recommended for fans of creatures and cannibalism! cool pics. this cover https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... is dope...