YA/ Children's Fantasy. Main character's father is scientist/ Monster hunter. There's a book that catalogues weird, exotic fantasy creatures that exist. Illustrations of various Monsters. Talking coyote/ fox/ dog? Read around 2013. Spoilers ahead.

[Tamika]

I recall reading this book ~5 years ago, and it seemed to be fairly contemporary. What I recall of the plot and various details are as follows:

-A main (girl?) character and possibly her younger brother
-Their mother is presumed dead; and their father is some sort of scientist/monster hunter with a secret lab(?)
-A talking coyote/fox/dog with a distinctive name (and a cane/hat?)
-Illustrations throughout the book of various types of monsters
-A book one of the characters possesses that catalogues weird and exotic fantasy creatures (that are real within the story)
(view spoiler)[I remember the last line of the book revealing that the children's mother is actually alive, with one character saying something along the lines of "Now, let's go wake up your mother." (hide spoiler)]
Edit: The coyote/fox/dog's name is an anagram or word puzzle of some sort (something spelled backwards?)

Any help in finding the author and title is much appreciated. Thanks for reading!

[Becca]

Are you still looking for this, Tamika? I haven't come across any likely answers but I did find a Reddit thread which sounds like it might be looking for the same book, with a few more details:

i only remember some plot points. One was that their father was this monster hunter or researcher or something with this sentient book, and the girl finds this book, it ends up biting her and she passes out. When she wakes up she finds her hand to be swollen to the size of a watermelon. Another point was they are fighting this monster and i remember specifically that if it eats one thing it will start to grow, but if it eats that same thing a second time it will shrink down to the size of a mouse? Another point was that there was this talking dog who had a top hat and a monocle. I do remember specifically that this book had very very creepy and dark illustrations, like almost like “Scary Stories to tell in the Dark” vibes to them

(https://www.reddit.com/r/whatsthatboo...)

Does that sound like the same book? Hopefully someone will recognise it!

[Becca]

I'm pretty sure this book is The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless by Ahmet Zappa - it was solved in the Reddit thread that I linked, and the description sounds very similar to yours.

[Kris]

Tamika, I added some details to the header/topic title. You can update it by clicking the small "edit" link after the header. This only works on the full Desktop website - not the Mobile website or app. (On the Mobile website, click the "Desktop version" link at the bottom of the page.)