What do you think?
Rate this book
A Field Guide to Elves, Dwarves, and Other Magical Folk
What is the proper way to greet an elf? Where is the best place to find fairies and sprites? What’s the difference between halflings and dwarves? These fantastic people and others may not be real, but what if they were? This handy field guide gives you everything you need to know about these magical people of the imagination.
- GenresFantasy
32 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2014
10 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 16, 2014
A cute little book that gives a very general description of magical creatures. While I would love something more in depth, it's perfect for my students enamored with fantasy.
September 12, 2016
This isn't a bad book for what it is, but it has problematic racial undertones.
All humanoid-presenting beings (I don't count Treefolk: tree-shaped with brown bark) are presented with Caucasian illustrations and character descriptions, and overwhelmingly positive characterizations of their cultures. This contrasts sharply with the sole non-white, human-presenting, "very dark skin[ned]" description and illustration, and characterization, of "Dark Elves."
The book describes drow in a supremely negative fashion; states none of its cultural accomplishments, strengths, or magics; and lists them as "evil" — with notable exceptions like Drizzt Do'Urden, who "rejects his people's evil ways and chooses to live with honor and respect toward others" and "protect his friends." Dark elves alone are "violent," "in a constant state of war," "enjoy attacking and killing," "steal food, supplies, and people to work as slaves." Moreover, they have many more children than all other beings in this book, but "many children don't live to adulthood" because Dark Elves, though naturally immortal — like Elves — "often die fighting in battles or through other violent methods."
The one positive comment about Dark Elves is that — again, like Elves — they're "good-looking." The worst characteristics of other magical folk in the book? Being prone to arrogance (Centaurs), leaving messes when slighted (Brownies), or using magic to confuse enemies or put them to sleep when threatened (Satyrs).
If the author could clean up Satyrs for children, Dark Elves should have been easy. And yet.
I applaud the author for including a being of color, but I'd have appreciated this book more had the "Dark Elf" (vs. "Elf" on the page before, highlighting the "Otherness" of Dark Elves by name and position immediately) not been there. Normally I would argue for inclusion, but the token non-white, human-presenting character was handled so differently from the rest of the beings in the book, I'd rather the author just left minority-presenting beings alone.
I expect more of a book published in 2015 for children, during an era where representation in media has caused children to fill in the blanks and emerge with subconscious racist assumptions about minorities; when subtleties like word choice and information inclusion vs. exclusion fill American culture with countless micro-aggressions against minorities that stack to oppressive heights; and the myth of the violent, hard-to-kill young black man now has mounting video evidence documenting its results: unarmed black men murdered by unprocecuted police, and black men and women stopped and questioned far more often and with less dignity than their white fellow citizens.
Racist assumptions in children don't happen in a vacuum. This book's tone was positive toward magical folk, inviting wonder—except for Dark Elves. This book presented all humanoid beings, even animalistic-featured ones like Brownies, with Caucasian skin tones—except for Dark Elves. Studies show lack of representation, and negative representation, both cause children to form problematic and dangerous opinions about race and gender, things they believe subconsciously because it's what's modeled for them. This book is for very young readers, and it handles race irresponsibly. This may seem benign, but the message isn't, nor are its effects. Hence my low rating.
All humanoid-presenting beings (I don't count Treefolk: tree-shaped with brown bark) are presented with Caucasian illustrations and character descriptions, and overwhelmingly positive characterizations of their cultures. This contrasts sharply with the sole non-white, human-presenting, "very dark skin[ned]" description and illustration, and characterization, of "Dark Elves."
The book describes drow in a supremely negative fashion; states none of its cultural accomplishments, strengths, or magics; and lists them as "evil" — with notable exceptions like Drizzt Do'Urden, who "rejects his people's evil ways and chooses to live with honor and respect toward others" and "protect his friends." Dark elves alone are "violent," "in a constant state of war," "enjoy attacking and killing," "steal food, supplies, and people to work as slaves." Moreover, they have many more children than all other beings in this book, but "many children don't live to adulthood" because Dark Elves, though naturally immortal — like Elves — "often die fighting in battles or through other violent methods."
The one positive comment about Dark Elves is that — again, like Elves — they're "good-looking." The worst characteristics of other magical folk in the book? Being prone to arrogance (Centaurs), leaving messes when slighted (Brownies), or using magic to confuse enemies or put them to sleep when threatened (Satyrs).
If the author could clean up Satyrs for children, Dark Elves should have been easy. And yet.
I applaud the author for including a being of color, but I'd have appreciated this book more had the "Dark Elf" (vs. "Elf" on the page before, highlighting the "Otherness" of Dark Elves by name and position immediately) not been there. Normally I would argue for inclusion, but the token non-white, human-presenting character was handled so differently from the rest of the beings in the book, I'd rather the author just left minority-presenting beings alone.
I expect more of a book published in 2015 for children, during an era where representation in media has caused children to fill in the blanks and emerge with subconscious racist assumptions about minorities; when subtleties like word choice and information inclusion vs. exclusion fill American culture with countless micro-aggressions against minorities that stack to oppressive heights; and the myth of the violent, hard-to-kill young black man now has mounting video evidence documenting its results: unarmed black men murdered by unprocecuted police, and black men and women stopped and questioned far more often and with less dignity than their white fellow citizens.
Racist assumptions in children don't happen in a vacuum. This book's tone was positive toward magical folk, inviting wonder—except for Dark Elves. This book presented all humanoid beings, even animalistic-featured ones like Brownies, with Caucasian skin tones—except for Dark Elves. Studies show lack of representation, and negative representation, both cause children to form problematic and dangerous opinions about race and gender, things they believe subconsciously because it's what's modeled for them. This book is for very young readers, and it handles race irresponsibly. This may seem benign, but the message isn't, nor are its effects. Hence my low rating.
March 26, 2017
A Cute little guide, it's not very long or thick, usually only a page or two per creature, and then of the two pages, one might be entirely taken up by an illustration.
This book pulls examples from other popular stories like Lord of the Rings and The Little Mermaid for what they call 'fantasy all-stars' in a 'collectible card'-esque nugget of info. I particularly liked the map in the back that shows where creatures originated, it was interesting to see which ones overlapped or existed together in different areas.
This book pulls examples from other popular stories like Lord of the Rings and The Little Mermaid for what they call 'fantasy all-stars' in a 'collectible card'-esque nugget of info. I particularly liked the map in the back that shows where creatures originated, it was interesting to see which ones overlapped or existed together in different areas.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews