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An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Mythical Creatures
Mysterious selkies, bad-tempered giants, devious fairies and even Loch Ness's most famous resident -- these are the mythical beasts of Scottish folklore. In the highly anticipated companion volume to the much-loved An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales, award-winning children’s author Theresa Breslin brings together a stunning collection of tales from across Scotland. Alternately humorous, poignant and thrilling, each story is brought to life with exquisite illustrations by Scottish fine artist Kate Leiper. A wonderful gift, this is a truly stunning book to be treasured for a lifetime and will be enjoyed by parents and grandparents as well as children.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published August 20, 2015
7 people are currently reading
249 people want to read
About the author
Theresa Breslin
90 books96 followersTheresa Breslin is a Scottish author of over 50 books, known for her contributions to children's and young adult literature. She won the Carnegie Medal in 1994 for Whispers in the Graveyard, which tells the story of a dyslexic boy overcoming personal struggles. Born and raised in Kirkintilloch, Scotland, she started writing as a teenager and later worked as a librarian before becoming a full-time author.
Her works often explore historical and social themes, as seen in Divided City (2005), which addresses sectarianism in Glasgow, and The Medici Seal (2006), a historical novel featuring Leonardo da Vinci. Her book Prisoner of the Inquisition (2010) was shortlisted for another Carnegie Medal.
Breslin has received numerous accolades, including the Scottish Book Trust's Outstanding Achievement Award and an Honorary Fellowship from the Association for Scottish Literary Studies. In 2019, she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to literature.
Her works often explore historical and social themes, as seen in Divided City (2005), which addresses sectarianism in Glasgow, and The Medici Seal (2006), a historical novel featuring Leonardo da Vinci. Her book Prisoner of the Inquisition (2010) was shortlisted for another Carnegie Medal.
Breslin has received numerous accolades, including the Scottish Book Trust's Outstanding Achievement Award and an Honorary Fellowship from the Association for Scottish Literary Studies. In 2019, she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to literature.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
June 28, 2024
I adore these books! I pick them up often and love the stories they hold!
December 18, 2020
These stories were tremendous fun to be read out loud - as all folk tales should be told! I will be reading this and all the other books in this Illustrated Treasury of Scottish [fill in the blank] many times over.
March 9, 2024
This was gifted to us by a friend when we went to Scotland. It was absolutely delightful! The illustrations were exquisite and the stories interesting.
April 13, 2025
✨
An Illustrated Treasury of Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales
★★★★★
I had a really fun time reading the stories about the various mythical creatures in this book. There were quite a few mythical creature stories in here that I wasn't familiar with, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I got very excited over the first story in this collection. However, I will say I didn't love it as much as the folk and fairy tale collection. I still enjoyed my time reading this book, though!
Here are some of my favorites:
✨ The Monster of Loch Ness
✨ Thomas the Rhymer or True Thomas
✨ The Merman of the Bell Rock
✨ The Wulver
✨ The Wee Folk of Merlin Crag
All thoughts, feelings, experiences, and opinions are honest and my own.
Instagram|Ko-fi|Throne
I had a really fun time reading the stories about the various mythical creatures in this book. There were quite a few mythical creature stories in here that I wasn't familiar with, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I got very excited over the first story in this collection. However, I will say I didn't love it as much as the folk and fairy tale collection. I still enjoyed my time reading this book, though!
Here are some of my favorites:
✨ The Monster of Loch Ness
✨ Thomas the Rhymer or True Thomas
✨ The Merman of the Bell Rock
✨ The Wulver
✨ The Wee Folk of Merlin Crag
All thoughts, feelings, experiences, and opinions are honest and my own.
Instagram|Ko-fi|Throne
March 17, 2025
A very fun readaloud with my kids! The illustrations were great as well.
November 1, 2016
This is a beautiful book, with nice binding, heavy paper, pretty illustrations. But it is kind of deceptive; the title says "illustrated treasury" of "mythical creatures" and the cover shows a fantastical beast with tusks, fangs, and beak, and clutching talons on the back cover. And this beast is shown in full glory in the book, but many of the other stories lack such clear illustrations of the creatures they tell of, if they are even focused on creatures (like what part of the story of Thomas the Rhymer is about a creature, except in the broadest sense?). Too often the illustrations, charming though they may be, are of fairly minor characters or scenes, more of an addition to the stories than a focus.
The stories are good, albeit crafted a bit much in favor of a younger audience. Mainly I would have liked more references or sources for the stories, since some appear to be traditional, or draw from traditional sources, while others are perhaps inventions of the author.
I also found the glossary at the end a bit odd. Very useful in some places, in others the relevant terms are defined in story or understandable from context. And it seems strange to feel a need to define a "sprite", especially by saying it is a pixie. I half hoped for another entry for "pixie" saying it was a type of sprite.
The stories are good, albeit crafted a bit much in favor of a younger audience. Mainly I would have liked more references or sources for the stories, since some appear to be traditional, or draw from traditional sources, while others are perhaps inventions of the author.
I also found the glossary at the end a bit odd. Very useful in some places, in others the relevant terms are defined in story or understandable from context. And it seems strange to feel a need to define a "sprite", especially by saying it is a pixie. I half hoped for another entry for "pixie" saying it was a type of sprite.
November 10, 2024
I saw this one in a shop in a castle, and lo! The local library system also has it.
So, uh, this one is a bit odd, because not all of the stories here actually are about mythical creatures, and most of them aren’t fully depicted in the illustrations, aside from a paw or something. It doesn’t make the stories bad, though if you’re opening this book expecting to see cool art of cool critters, it’s not here.
They’re cool little children’s stories here; obviously, they’re mostly based on old folklore and legends, though the author admits she took some liberties in the tellings. I don’t think any of them are spooky enough to scare a child, but admittedly, someone with kids might be a better judge of that. Maybe they’d find the malevolent mermen distressing.
Nice, interesting, but short, and a little disappointing in how few creatures are fully shown instead of just glimpses or descriptions, considering the title.
So, uh, this one is a bit odd, because not all of the stories here actually are about mythical creatures, and most of them aren’t fully depicted in the illustrations, aside from a paw or something. It doesn’t make the stories bad, though if you’re opening this book expecting to see cool art of cool critters, it’s not here.
They’re cool little children’s stories here; obviously, they’re mostly based on old folklore and legends, though the author admits she took some liberties in the tellings. I don’t think any of them are spooky enough to scare a child, but admittedly, someone with kids might be a better judge of that. Maybe they’d find the malevolent mermen distressing.
Nice, interesting, but short, and a little disappointing in how few creatures are fully shown instead of just glimpses or descriptions, considering the title.
February 29, 2024
This book belongs to my Grandson Toby who has a passion for lengends, myths and dinosaurs and brought it with him when he came to stay. This is such a beautiful book, the stories are fascinating, I especially love the Giants Causeway story, as I have been to the Island of Staffa and Fingal's Cave twice, a magical place.
The illustrations are exquisite, the book is worth buying just for the artwork.
The illustrations are exquisite, the book is worth buying just for the artwork.
November 23, 2017
I absolutely loved this book.
The illustrations were absolutely gorgeous and the stories were so magical, I couldn't find one wrong thing about this book.
A great read if you want to learn about creatures of Scottish mythology.
The illustrations were absolutely gorgeous and the stories were so magical, I couldn't find one wrong thing about this book.
A great read if you want to learn about creatures of Scottish mythology.
May 11, 2018
Absolutely beautiful book in every single particular. The illustrations by Kate Leiper are delightful and Theresa Breslin clearly enjoys the art of story telling (and is good at it)! We thoroughly enjoyed these stories and highly recommend this book series to anyone who enjoys fairy tales.
September 19, 2017
Okay this book is so beautiful there's a story about the Loch Ness monster, a story about the Isle of Skye.
June 17, 2019
Fantastic book of Scottish Folklore and fiction. Read it to my 3 year old and she absolutely loves it.
February 6, 2021
The most amazing treasury I've ever had the good fortune of finding
April 13, 2021
A wonderful book with some lovely illustrations.
August 20, 2021
A delightful read aloud!
December 6, 2021
Very enjoyable and all new tales for me.
February 25, 2023
Lovely illustrations.
Intriguing stories.
Excellent glossary.
Intriguing stories.
Excellent glossary.
December 15, 2023
These stories are delightfully and beautifully illustrated and wonderfully told.
December 22, 2022
This book was recommended to me while I wholeheartedly looked forward to it as I love the subject of fantastical/mythical creatures. But instead the title is a bit misleading for it is less an " illustrated treasury" than a compilation of stories with mythical creatures starring in them for the most part although in the case of The Mermen of Bell Roc, The Wulver and The Saving Grace they are missing, mentioned or appear very little in their stories.
The way the book is set-up each chapter is definitely separated from the others. The titular page of the chapter is placed on a solid color background with descriptive comments taken straight from the story for the reader so almost like it is a preview to those who may be just skimming through. Otherwise the story starts off with a chapter name and then a few paragraphs to introduce the reader to either the setting, an aspect of Scottish life, to provide a possible explanation to a creature, etc. And then from there the first sentence is provided in large and italic font before returning to the regular font of the story.
What I truly enjoyed about this book was its inclusion of both Gaelic and modern Scottish words for the reader although there is no pronunciation guide or even differentiation made among the two. Instead the words are collected in a glossary in the back for those readers who are interested in learning more about their meaning.
The illustrations for the book are a bit of a hit or miss for me depending upon which page I was looking at with most of them being in muted tones rather than brighter colors. Otherwise the attention to detail in some cases such as the Gaelic adornments for the Island Beast and the ship additions for Nessie were a pure joy, the foggy scene of the white hart was breathtaking to a degree and the fact that most of the animals are provided in realistic details that capture the reader's mind.
At the same time the human and human-like characters as well as a cat at one point and the white hind had problems with proportions and/or bodily exaggerations that made them hard to look at such as the massive nose on the Wee Man of Merlin's Crag. Was it since of this that so many of the characters had their faces covered from the reader including the Wulver who may have been interesting? At other times the details themselves were changed in the illustrations such as the green colored Nessie who was mentioned as being gray in the story so did the illustrator have a chance to read the book and snub the details or was an okay given to ignore the tale?
All in all it was rather decent for cultural stories if you are interested in them but care less about knowing exactly where they came from. And although some may be familiar there will also be some that you most definitely may not have heard of and as such it does merit a once read-through if you are interested in the subject.
The way the book is set-up each chapter is definitely separated from the others. The titular page of the chapter is placed on a solid color background with descriptive comments taken straight from the story for the reader so almost like it is a preview to those who may be just skimming through. Otherwise the story starts off with a chapter name and then a few paragraphs to introduce the reader to either the setting, an aspect of Scottish life, to provide a possible explanation to a creature, etc. And then from there the first sentence is provided in large and italic font before returning to the regular font of the story.
What I truly enjoyed about this book was its inclusion of both Gaelic and modern Scottish words for the reader although there is no pronunciation guide or even differentiation made among the two. Instead the words are collected in a glossary in the back for those readers who are interested in learning more about their meaning.
The illustrations for the book are a bit of a hit or miss for me depending upon which page I was looking at with most of them being in muted tones rather than brighter colors. Otherwise the attention to detail in some cases such as the Gaelic adornments for the Island Beast and the ship additions for Nessie were a pure joy, the foggy scene of the white hart was breathtaking to a degree and the fact that most of the animals are provided in realistic details that capture the reader's mind.
At the same time the human and human-like characters as well as a cat at one point and the white hind had problems with proportions and/or bodily exaggerations that made them hard to look at such as the massive nose on the Wee Man of Merlin's Crag. Was it since of this that so many of the characters had their faces covered from the reader including the Wulver who may have been interesting? At other times the details themselves were changed in the illustrations such as the green colored Nessie who was mentioned as being gray in the story so did the illustrator have a chance to read the book and snub the details or was an okay given to ignore the tale?
All in all it was rather decent for cultural stories if you are interested in them but care less about knowing exactly where they came from. And although some may be familiar there will also be some that you most definitely may not have heard of and as such it does merit a once read-through if you are interested in the subject.
June 24, 2016
Beautifully illustrated and beautifully narrated, this guide to Scottish mythical creatures is perhaps the most engaging and memorable I have encountered. Suitable particularly for children, but also a good source of intrigue and inspiration for older readers.
January 28, 2016
Beautiful illustrations and stories just long enough to keep a 6 year old interested before bed. I'm looking forward to reading Scottish Folk and Fairytales as well. Very recommended.
November 14, 2016
Loved how the tales were told in this book. Also the illustrations were fantastic!
December 25, 2016
Wonderful stories and illustrations.
December 18, 2025
Beautifully illustrated, but with a slightly weird lack of focus on the creatures. Not really distinguishable from any other children's folklore collection.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews