Atlas monster a nadpřirozených bytostí z celého světa

by Sandra Lawrence, Lucie Kellnerová Kalvachová (translator), Stuart Hill (Illustrator)

Ilustrovaný atlas, objevený po staletích, představuje bytosti, které se od dávných časů vyskytují v příbězích, legendách a mýtech lidí na celém světě. Jsou to bytosti tajuplné, vymykající se všem přírodním a lidským zákonům: trpaslíci, obři, víly, skřítci, strašidla, démoni, obludy, draci a v neposlední řadě stvoření, která na sebe dokážou vzít podobu kohokoli a čehokoli… Co ale znamenají podivné šifrované vzkazy, které tvůrce atlasu Cornelius Walters zaznamenal do svého deníku…? – Tato výpravná obrazová publikace s tajemným příběhem přinese inspiraci a radost nejen dětem, ale čtenářům všeho věku a dobře poslouží k rodinnému čtení.

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Mythology, Childrens, Art, Middle Grade, Maps

64 pages, Hardcover

First published October 12, 2017

Reviews

[Mateicee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ein sehr schön gestalteter Atlas. Zu jedem Monster gibt es eine kurze Definition und eine Illustration. Das kleine Chiffrier-Rätsel hat mir auch ziemlich Spaß gemacht.

Mir waren es aber leider, alles in allem zu wenige Fabelweseninformationen

[Luna's Little Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much on detail on each page, from the illustrations to the information about each monster plus the notes – that you’ll spend hours and not grow tired of looking at this book. The illustrations/maps are lovely and there is a code for you to unravel!

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. I really enjoyed reading about the monsters from more unusual places such as Oceania and Australia. A lot of these kinds of books just cover North America and Europe.

I had some issues with the formatting though. It has a framing story of being a journal found in an old trunk. This was completely unnecessary and the editor's "notes" throughout the book detracted from my enjoyment.

There were also two comments which were jarring in the context. At one point the editor put in a note that Madremonte (a nature spirit from Colombia who protects the natural world) is probably the monster that humankind should most fear...ok. I have nothing against nature conservation and I consider myself to be a low-key environmentalist. But that is just really incongruous in a book which is supposedly about a 16th-century journey around the world?

The other comment was one about the evils of slavery on the Africa page...again, I agree that slavery was and is evil and I condemn it. But it is very strange to point that out ONLY on the Africa page. Slavery has existed in many cultures around the world and sadly still does in places. If this was supposedly written in the 16th-century by a British person...I just don't get it.

Those two comments didn't ruin the book for me by any means, but they definitely left me confused.

The best part of this book was the illustrations: they were detailed and stunning. The actual "story" was just acceptable though. I would have enjoyed this more if it had just been a straight up atlas without the strange framing.

[Elizabeth Mellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun addition to our monsters unit study, my kids didn’t like it as much as another atlas we were working on. There were more monsters included, smaller text and not as cutesy imagery. My only real complaint was the same for both books - I wish they’d had phonetic spelling next to monster and place names. The subplot with the secret symbols didn’t really catch my kids the way I think it was probably intended to.

[Yvonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eigentlich tolle Idee! Schade, dass es eher eine Art Auflistung von Fabelwesen handelt. Es wäre vielleicht besser gewesen, einige Wesen auszuwählen und dazu jeweils eine richtige Geschichte zu erzählen. Die zu entschlüsselnde Geheimschrift fand ich super.

[Mandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Atlas of Monsters, as the title indicates, is an atlas of monsters from the perspective of a 16th century adventurer touring the world to search out monsters, with notes from an employee of a descendant of his cook's son in the modern (?) day. The book combines illustrations, maps, legends, and code to create an atlas of mythical creatures with a cypher to reveal a hidden story.

I picked this one up because I was looking for mythical creature inspiration beyond Europe and classical mythology, and I liked it as a general overview. With the way that the book is laid out, there isn't a ton of room to really describe each of the creatures past a few lines so they begin all sounding similar after a while (there's only so many ways to describe "eats people/blood" or "scales/claws/animal characteristics"), so I think that I'd have liked for this to have a bit more pages to flesh out the creatures further to better differentiate them. Still, there's a wide variety in here, which is interesting.

The art is nice, and the maps are interesting. I did find it a bit difficult to track the numbering on the maps because the creatures didn't always seem to be numbered in the most logical way. Still, the art was nice, and I liked the formatting of the book.

The code/mystery was... honestly, super unnecessary for me. I mean, the cypher isn't even fully completed. Q, X, and Z have no code, and I know they're not used in the messages but still. I didn't really like that part at all because once I actually decoded them all, it was just super repetitive and at odds with how the creatures are depicted. How exactly are those who reveal the secret meant to "join" them? How does that "curse" work? That'd be an interesting story in of itself, but it fails in this context bc we know literally nothing about it. I think it'd have been stronger without it.

Also, frankly, I feel a little silly for even adding this warning in, but there's a pretty consistent meta warning/threat against those "learning the secrets," aka the readers. It's very generic frankly, but I personally have been having a serious uptick in anxiety/paranoia lately and probably would have not read this at my apartment by myself late at night if I'd known. It really isn't very scary, but in case you're like me and are having more of a mental health minute than normal. Also, may or may not freak a kid out depending on how old they are but YMMV on it. (This is a separate thing from my disagreement with the mystery, btw. Even if I was totally chill with it, I just think it's pointless and doesn't add anything to the book.)

Overall, this is like. Fine? But I'd have loved for the unnecessary mystery plot to be replaced with fleshing out more of the creatures. Got some interesting creatures to play around with though.

[Mehsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een man vindt een geheime ruimte en vindt dit magische boek.

Ik had dit boek al een tijd op het oog, ik zag hem eerst op Hebban en was erg enthousiast (maar niet enthousiast genoeg om daar mee te doen met de wedstrijd om een exemplaar te winnen). Gelukkig had bibliotheek #1 hem vorige week en kon ik hem lekker uitlenen.

Het boek begint met een man die deze atlas (en nog wat andere documenten) vindt. Hij is meteen skeptisch maar ook geïnteresseerd. In plaats van dat hij nou eerst wat proeflezen had gedaan heeft hij alles gewoon meteen ook naar de uitgever gestuurd. Eh. Maar goed, door dit boek heen zien we zijn notities. In het begin is hij erg skeptisch over het hele gebeuren, maar algauw zie je dat hij ook deze berichten krijgt en hij ziet langzaam dat er een flinke portie waarheid in het document schuilt. We zien ook dat hij (blijkbaar met moeite) de code aan het ontcijferen is.

Ik vond het erg leuk hoe de toon van het boek veranderde van oh oh ho wat lollig naar serieus en spannend. Niet alleen door degene die het boek nu in zijn handen heeft, maar ook door de berichten van de eerste eigenaar + de codes die hij kreeg.

Ik moet wel zeggen, en misschien ligt dit aan de vertaling, dat ik de beschrijvingen en verhalen bij de monsters vaak erg droog en saai vond. En ik ben normaal een monsterliefhebber en wil alles over ze weten. Nu merkte ik gewoon dat ik vaak maar half aan het lezen was en voor de rest vooral aan het focussen was op de codes en de interessante en mooi bijpassende illustraties + prachtige kaarten met wat informatie van wanneer ze die monsters zijn tegengekomen + wat er is gebeurd toen ze dat deden.

Elk deel heeft een code + een verhaal over hoe deze codes zijn gevonden. De code was vrij makkelijk te ontcijferen maar ik had toch heel veel plezier telkens dat ik er weer een mocht ontcijferen (en het werd ook steeds spannender wat het zeker nog beter maakte).

Nog wel even een applausje naar het feit dat ze de code in het Engels en Nederlands hetzelfde hebben gehouden, maar wel andere zinnen hebben gemaakt met de code. Ik vroeg me al af of ze alles hadden omgegooid.

Dus ja, een mooi boek om te hebben. Ik vond het einde erg goed gedaan, lekker spannend. Ik zou het zeker ook wel aanraden.

Review wordt morgen ook op mijn blog gepost: https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cool book that we bought as a gift for my son's friend, but who am I kidding, I wanted a copy too, so I bought one after we gave it away. For kids, it's an amazing global look at monsters from mythology and folklore around the world, tied up in the story of fictional 16th-century British aristocrat's journey around the globe, and an additional meta-story about the librarian who found the manuscript and decided to bring it to publication. For adults like me, it's a fascinating achievement in illustration and design and a portal to research some of these beasts a little bit more fully - I've been reading about monsters since I learned how to read, and I had never heard of easily a third of the creatures listed in the book. So, fun for everyone (except people who hate monsters, in which case, who ARE you?)!

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0/5.0 - After reading so many long, intense books, this book took me on a trip around the world as seen through the eyes of an explorer in the 1500s. The book is told in a number of voices, the explorer's, a librarian who discovers the journey in the papers of an estate, and a third party who writes in code which it is up to you to decipher. There are maps of each continent and the monsters that inhabit them, with bits of mythology about each. Although there are only 64 pages, you could easily spend hours perusing them and enjoying the rich detail they contain.
AtY - 19. A fantasy book
Pop Sugar - A book with a map

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

T’s most important thing to know: It’s a spooky one.
T’s favorite part: The legendary things. The legends. That’s what I like.

Quite literally an atlas of monsters. Each continent is depicted with illustrations of monsters located in their geographic origins. The monsters's traits are explained and a few short legends are narrated.

What sets it apart: Readers must solve a mystery left by the geographer who mapped out the monsters.

[Ashley Adkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book totally reminded me of the book Hiccup creates in the How to Train Your Dragon movies. Detailed maps fill each page with different creates found in each regions. Some pages are filled with text so I would recommend this book for older readers or younger readers who can hold their attention for longer periods of time. Fun and creative idea.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is both an incredible, beautifully illustrated resource of world folklore, but also has similar gimmicks to Dragonology/Egyptology. This is a wonderful nonfiction roundup of monster lore from around the world, but the added secret code story was really fun to transcribe. I had an amazing time writing all the symbols on index cards and decoding each little piece.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fact that it's a kid's book saved it from 2 stars :) I would have appreciate a little more detail about each monster, having the pictures actually match the descriptions given of the monsters, and the pictures oriented in a way that made it less like a game of "I spy."

But, again, I probably shouldn't be reading books for elementary school kids.

[Raechel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An atlas of mythical creatures around the world collected in a very unique way. This is spun as a woman finding the manuscript of a man from the 1500's who gathered the tales and she's sending the manuscript to be published. However, there are secrets scattered and hidden in the text that gave both him, her, and the world a message. I highly enjoyed the puzzle and the information.

[Alexandra Calaway · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I would have read over and over again as a kid, and one that I greatly enjoyed as an adult. The illustrations on the map were great and I loved all the tidbit mythology, much of which was new to me and I consider myself a magical monster aficionado!

[Sara Jesus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Com imagens incríveis, este livro dá a conhecer os vários mitos existentes nos diversos continentes. Achei especialmente interessantes os "monstros" russos e eslavos, assim como os relacionados com a mitologia maori.

[Nichole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really cool book. I wish the font for the creature names was different-- if you don't know the words, sometimes it's hard to know for sure which letter is there. If I struggled, I imagine the kids will, too. I love the messages to decipher. That was fun.

[Laura Mi vida entre libros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es una maravilla

[Cecilia Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice reference source, with illustrated maps by Stuart Hill.
Some of the monsters will be familiar to Harry Potter fans.

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this! It’s so fascinating to get to know all these mythological creatures from all over the world. Its detailed illustrations and comprehensive descriptions are a real treat.

[Lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love working out the secret code after enjoying the book.

[Neelam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gifted this book to my niece - Navya and this is her review :- I like it because it gives knowledge about mythical monsters and it even has maps

[The Flux Tribe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool, Imma use some of those to homebrew some dnd monsters

[Shraddha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smashing concept for an illustrated book! It is amazing to see how mythology revolves around similar concepts all around the world.

[Louise Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could lie and say I bought this book for my kids, but I didn't. I loved the illustrations and the snippets about all the different monsters, many I'd never heard of.

It's a beautiful book.

I recommend this to kids and adults who like monsters and want to see where their legends come from.

[Kellee Moye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really everything that the summary states. It is fascinating! And beautiful! There is some humor because of the voyager’s anecdotes and the librarian’s notes, too, which is always nice. And the addition of the code adds an interactive element to the text. Highly recommended for any teacher teaching mythology or any traditional stories with monsters/creatures.

Full review: http://www.unleashingreaders.com/?p=1...