What do you think?
Rate this book
The Little Book of Magical Creatures: A Revised and Expanded Edition
From the mundane to the extraordinary, The Little Book of Magical Creatures catalogs over two dozen animals, including dragons, centaurs, owls, and salamanders. Discover the legend and lore of magical creatures in this extraordinary bestiary. Drawn from four main categories (fabulous, tame, wild, and magic storied), The Little Book of Magical Creatures contains some unexpected additions. For example, did you know that Greek myths associate the pig with purity and protection from evil spirits? Elizabeth Pepper and Barbara Stacy outline the origin of the animals, their mythological and magical significance, and their role in the popular imagination. Included are pictures and woodcuts of wild and fantastical creatures.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 20, 2020
Absolutely loved this charming collection of Magical Creatures, however I sometimes felt that the writing was a bit too rushed and didn’t flow as good as it could have been. Nonetheless, this will be a great book to pass down to generations.
March 10, 2026
⭐️⭐️
Little Book of Magical Creatures by Elizabeth Pepper and Barbara Stacy (Revised Edition), from the Witch’s Almanac Collection.
This book surprised me. Since it comes from the Witch’s Almanac collection, I expected something more traditionally witchy. Instead, much of the mythology leans heavily into Greek lore and classical folklore.
What really stands out is the artwork and layout. The book is filled with historical drawings and paintings, and those images feel like the true treasure of this little volume. The cover alone is stunning. It features The Lady with the Unicorn, a fifteenth century Flemish tapestry, and it immediately sets a mystical tone.
Unfortunately, the structure of the book is not nearly as strong as the visuals.
The material is technically organized by animals, but the information inside each section feels scattered. It often reads like collected notes rather than a carefully curated exploration of magical creatures. I frequently felt like I was jumping through random bits of information.
One line early in the book does capture the spirit nicely:
“Some magical creatures share our life. Others live wild and free.”
My favorite sections so far were the cats and the bats. I loved learning that bats are the only mammals capable of true flight and that their facial expressions can show clear emotional states. Their intelligence is compared to other animals in fascinating ways. The cat section also helped me understand more clearly why cats were revered in Egyptian culture.
The white raven also caught my attention. It is described as the creature that puts things right. That idea stayed with me.
There are many interesting little pieces of folklore scattered throughout the book. One passage explains that the art of drama grew out of Athenian music and dance festivals honoring Dionysus, whose symbol was the goat. Another quote reminds us that “we share the planet with thinking animals,” a line from Marc D. Hauser.
The mythological creatures themselves are fun to explore. The phoenix description was my favorite. The bird lives for five hundred years, sings a beautiful dirge, and then burns itself in fragrant fire. Nine days later a new phoenix rises from the ashes.
I also learned that griffins and horses produce hippogriffs. Who knew the salamander had so much mythology surrounding it? Even the strange facts are memorable. Owls prefer solitude. The spider dies from exhaustion after mating. According to one claim, the last unicorn sighting occurred in Maine in 1673.
The book also contains references to famous works of art that are not always pictured. One example is the earliest known deer painting called The Sorcerer, dated around 12,000 BCE. I really wish that image had been included.
Where the book truly loses its focus is in the final section. The last twenty to thirty pages suddenly shift into material from other authors, including references to Jorge Luis Borges and his writings on fantasy creatures. These sections feel disconnected from the rest of the book and interrupt the flow.
Up to that point I was leaning toward four stars. The ending changed my mind. It feels random and unnecessary, and it does not follow the format the rest of the book established.
In the end, the artwork saves the rating. The images are beautiful and make the book worth browsing. Without them I would have given this two stars. Because of the artwork, it landed at three.....but......
As I continued toward the end of the book, my rating dropped to two stars. The additional stories included in the final section are not written by the authors and could easily have been organized into the existing chapters instead of being placed randomly at the end. What ultimately pushed my rating down was seeing WebMD cited as a source. That is not a credible reference for a book on mythology and folklore. Once I saw that, it made me question the reliability of the other sources used throughout the book.
There are also fascinating tidbits scattered throughout:
• “Oddly enough, we owe the art of drama to the Athenian music and dance festivals honoring Dionysus, whose symbol was the goat.”
• “We share the planet with thinking animals.” — Marc D. Hauser
• “In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals.”
A quote from the early section sets a lovely tone:
“Some magical creatures share our life. Others live wild and free.”
Little Book of Magical Creatures by Elizabeth Pepper and Barbara Stacy (Revised Edition), from the Witch’s Almanac Collection.
This book surprised me. Since it comes from the Witch’s Almanac collection, I expected something more traditionally witchy. Instead, much of the mythology leans heavily into Greek lore and classical folklore.
What really stands out is the artwork and layout. The book is filled with historical drawings and paintings, and those images feel like the true treasure of this little volume. The cover alone is stunning. It features The Lady with the Unicorn, a fifteenth century Flemish tapestry, and it immediately sets a mystical tone.
Unfortunately, the structure of the book is not nearly as strong as the visuals.
The material is technically organized by animals, but the information inside each section feels scattered. It often reads like collected notes rather than a carefully curated exploration of magical creatures. I frequently felt like I was jumping through random bits of information.
One line early in the book does capture the spirit nicely:
“Some magical creatures share our life. Others live wild and free.”
My favorite sections so far were the cats and the bats. I loved learning that bats are the only mammals capable of true flight and that their facial expressions can show clear emotional states. Their intelligence is compared to other animals in fascinating ways. The cat section also helped me understand more clearly why cats were revered in Egyptian culture.
The white raven also caught my attention. It is described as the creature that puts things right. That idea stayed with me.
There are many interesting little pieces of folklore scattered throughout the book. One passage explains that the art of drama grew out of Athenian music and dance festivals honoring Dionysus, whose symbol was the goat. Another quote reminds us that “we share the planet with thinking animals,” a line from Marc D. Hauser.
The mythological creatures themselves are fun to explore. The phoenix description was my favorite. The bird lives for five hundred years, sings a beautiful dirge, and then burns itself in fragrant fire. Nine days later a new phoenix rises from the ashes.
I also learned that griffins and horses produce hippogriffs. Who knew the salamander had so much mythology surrounding it? Even the strange facts are memorable. Owls prefer solitude. The spider dies from exhaustion after mating. According to one claim, the last unicorn sighting occurred in Maine in 1673.
The book also contains references to famous works of art that are not always pictured. One example is the earliest known deer painting called The Sorcerer, dated around 12,000 BCE. I really wish that image had been included.
Where the book truly loses its focus is in the final section. The last twenty to thirty pages suddenly shift into material from other authors, including references to Jorge Luis Borges and his writings on fantasy creatures. These sections feel disconnected from the rest of the book and interrupt the flow.
Up to that point I was leaning toward four stars. The ending changed my mind. It feels random and unnecessary, and it does not follow the format the rest of the book established.
In the end, the artwork saves the rating. The images are beautiful and make the book worth browsing. Without them I would have given this two stars. Because of the artwork, it landed at three.....but......
As I continued toward the end of the book, my rating dropped to two stars. The additional stories included in the final section are not written by the authors and could easily have been organized into the existing chapters instead of being placed randomly at the end. What ultimately pushed my rating down was seeing WebMD cited as a source. That is not a credible reference for a book on mythology and folklore. Once I saw that, it made me question the reliability of the other sources used throughout the book.
There are also fascinating tidbits scattered throughout:
• “Oddly enough, we owe the art of drama to the Athenian music and dance festivals honoring Dionysus, whose symbol was the goat.”
• “We share the planet with thinking animals.” — Marc D. Hauser
• “In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals.”
A quote from the early section sets a lovely tone:
“Some magical creatures share our life. Others live wild and free.”
August 23, 2020
Fun little book
July 11, 2015
An interesting enough read but I would have loved to see more in depth descriptions
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews