THE HIDDEN BESTIARY OF MARVELOUS, MYSTERIOUS, AND (MAYBE EVEN) MAGICAL CREATURES

Reporting in verse on his world-spanning travels, naturalist B.B. Barnswhitten sets out in search of 14 rarely (or never) seen creatures from the golden toad to the Loch Ness Monster. He has no success, but sharp-eyed readers will, as Filippucci hides animals and animal shapes in each lushly detailed land- or seascape’s rocks, clouds and foliage. Irritatingly for adults and confusingly for children, the still-extant creatures aren’t distinguished from the extinct and imaginary ones until a set of profiles at the end, which provides basic information on habitat, description, behavior, diet and status (extinct, endangered, nonexistent). The light, tongue-in-cheek presentation is at war with such grim entries as the Steller’s Sea Cow’s: “Extinct, 1768 (only 27 years after being discovered by Steller), due to overhunting for meat and oil.” Though the poet sometimes labors—“I searched the night jungle, / I looked high and low, / For the curious parrot, / The strange kakapo…”—fans of Graeme Base’s Water Hole (2001) and its ilk will enjoy playing “spot the beastie,” as long as they aren’t in it for the information. (Picture book. 7-9)