ARE SEA MONSTERS REAL?

A rousing gallery of toothy and tentacled terrors of the past and present.

Along with creatures of legend, from the leviathan and the kraken to Nessie, Chessie (who supposedly lives in the Chesapeake Bay), and Champy (an alleged resident of Lake Champlain), Clarke describes with bone-crushing relish a selection of “Real-Life” and “Wannabe Sea Monsters”—such as prehistoric Dunkleosteus, which “had the strongest jaws of any fish ever. Slice! Dice!” (“It could have crushed a human like a bug!” the author continues.) While it may be stretching a point to link the Hydra of Homeric myth to the giant Pacific octopus, Clarke’s claims that supposed mermaids were really manatees or Steller’s sea cows and that kraken were giant squid are at least feasible…and there would likely be few to argue with her closing claim that Megalodon was “the scariest sea monster of all time.” With a few exceptions the accompanying mix of photos, digital art, and public domain prints seems staid in comparison, but the narrative, laced as it is with “Crunch! Munch!” sound effect words, injects more than enough melodrama to make up for the visuals.

Should make a huge splash with young mariners and monster lovers alike.