April 2012: Mystical/Magical Creatures (Master List and General Discusison)

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

In April, the Picture Book Club will discuss Mystical/Magical Creatures. Here is the wonderful MASTER LIST that our members created. See below for some wonderful books about a variety of creatures.

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Here are some to get us started:

The Best Pet of All (Dragon)

A Fairy Went A-Marketing

How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head

Hush, Little Dragon

A Dignity of Dragons (but a variety of mystical creatures)

Serendipity (Sea Serpent)

Morgan and Me (Unicorn)

Guess What I Found in Dragon Wood

Mermaid Dreams

The Mud Fairy

The Dollhouse Fairy

The Elves and the Shoemaker (Jim LaMarche version)

Argus (Dragon)


The Unicorn of the West

Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child (Kate Greenaway Medal

Selkie

The Merbaby

The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster: A Tale of Picky Eating

Trouble with Trolls

Pegasus

The below are "collections"--not one continuous story--but still probably categorized as picture books, so if that appeals to any of you:

Michael Hague's Magical World of
Unicorns


The Mermaid's Treasure

[Manybooks]

UNICORNS

Brave Jack and the Unicorn
Unicorn Wings
I Wished for a Unicorn
The Dragon and the Unicorn
Where Have the Unicorns Gone?
Enchanted Lions
Bridget Fidget and The Most Perfect Pet
The Foggy, Foggy Forest
Unicorns
Unicorns

DRAGONS

One Drowsy Dragon
City of Dragons
Oscar and the Very Hungry Dragon
Dragon Dancing
If I Had a Dragon
Dragon Tide
Dragons Love Tacos
Custard the Dragon and the Wicked Knight
Jousting with Jesters: An ABC for the Younger Dragon
King Jack and the Dragon
The Paper Bag Princess
Take Care, Good Knight
The Dragon ABC Hunt
Merlin and the Dragons

MERMAIDS AND SEA MONSTERS

The Mermaid's Muse: The Legend of the Dragon Boats
Mermaid Sister
Mermaids Most Amazing
Mermaids and Mermen
The Little Mermaid
Sophie And The Sea Monster
The Sea Serpent and Me
The Pirate Cruncher

DWARFS, FAIRIES, ELVES, LEPRECHAUNS, BANSHEES

Fairy
Good Night, Fairies
Sky Castle
Child of Faerie, Child of Earth
April and Esme Tooth Fairies
Fairies and Elves
Leprechauns
The Pied Piper's Magic
Three Teeny Tiny Tales: The Elves and the Shoemaker/The Gingerbread Man/Thumbelina
The dot com Leprechaun
The Leprechaun's Gold
The Leprechaun in the Basement
Leprechaun Gold
Clever Tom And The Leprechaun: An Old IrishStory
The Night Before St. Patrick's Day
The Banshee
Monsters - Banshees
Pookins Gets Her Way

GOBLINS, OGRES, GIANTS

The Goblin and the Empty Chair
The Hinky-Pink: An Old Tale
Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka
Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins
The Odious Ogre
Yonderfel's Castle: A Medieval Fable
Giants, Trolls, and Ogres
Golem
Kate's Giants
Fin M'Coul: The Giant of Knockmany Hill

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Gundula wrote: "UNICORNS

Brave Jack and the Unicorn
Unicorn Wings
I Wished for a Unicorn
The Dragon and the Unicorn
[book:Where Have the Unicorns Gone?|49..."

Wow, I see we've come to the right place for boosk on mythical creatures, Gundula! :-)

[Manybooks]

Kathryn wrote: "Gundula wrote: "UNICORNS

Brave Jack and the Unicorn
Unicorn Wings
I Wished for a Unicorn
The Dragon and the Unicorn
[book:Where Have the U..."

Most of these are fiction, but I did try to find a few longer non-fiction books as well.

[ABC]

The Tomten

[ABC]

Giant John

Little Daruma & Little Tengu: A Japanese Children's Tale. I doubt this last one will get picked because it probably is not available in your library. (I think?)

[ABC]

I wanted to find a book with "saci" which are one-footed Brazilian creatures, but I don't know of any English books! Also "kappa" which are VERY famous Japanese creatures. This is an example of a kappa book: http://www.amazon.co.jp/はなかっぱ-だいずかん-て...

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Kirei wrote: "I wanted to find a book with "saci" which are one-footed Brazilian creatures, but I don't know of any English books! Also "kappa" which are VERY famous Japanese creatures. This is an example of a..."

Oh, Kirei! You're making me wish I could read Japanese so I could read those books. They sound wonderful. And the kappa is really cute ;-)

I would love it if we could include a broad range of creatures. My knowledge is fairly limited to Western literature, so I am grateful to you! Even if we can't get them in our libraries in the US, it's nice to see them on here for the Master List.

[Linda]

Oh yes! Local mythical creatures - that would be our Bunyip here in Australia, so I'll include this for the list:
The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Linda wrote: "Oh yes! Local mythical creatures - that would be our Bunyip here in Australia, so I'll include this for the list:
The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek"

Oh, very cool! I've never even heard of a Bunyip. Thank you!

[Dolly]

So many great books are listed already. Here are a few more:

The Lorax (might be a stretch, but wanted to add this one in honor of the movie/Dr. Seuss's birthday)

The Hidden Bestiary Of Marvelous, Mysterious, And (Maybe Even) Magical Creatures

Brave Martha and the Dragon: A Tale of Provence

Dragon in the Cupboard

The Knight and the Dragon

Max's Dragon

Sukey and the Mermaid

Mythological Creatures: A Classical Bestiary

Magical Creatures

Let's Go, Pegasus!

The Wishing of Biddy Malone

[Anne]

The Hidden Folk: Stories of Fairies, Dwarves, Selkies, and Other Secret Beings
Eric Carle's Dragons, Dragons
Discovery of Dragons
Bestiary, by Jonathan Hunt
Brave Margaret: An Irish Adventure
The Whingdingdilly
Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent

[David]

I love The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek!

[June]

I don't know if you want to include Oni?

Tasty Baby Belly Buttons, and I believe The Funny Little Woman.

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Thanks to all for the fabulous nominations. I'm really excited about so many of these titles, and especially eager to know more about some of the creatures from other countries with which I am not very familiar.

Now is your opportunity to vote for the five books you most want to read with the group in April. You may choose from the books on our official list (messages 2-16) and post your choices in a comment below. Votes will be accepted through March 19th. Thank you!

[Manybooks]

My votes go to

Golem
The Dragon and the Unicorn
Fin M'Coul: The Giant of Knockmany Hill
The dot com Leprechaun
Enchanted Lions

[Linda]

Taking into account the titles that I have access to, here are my votes:

The Funny Little Woman
The Tomten
The Goblin and the Empty Chair
The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster: A Tale of Picky Eating
Guess What I Found in Dragon Wood

(I would vote for The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek too if I hadn't read it a zillion times (!))

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Since only two people have voted already, and Gundula reminded me that in some parts of the world (Canada, especially) it is spring break this week (ours here in my area of California aren't until the first week of April), I'll extend the voting until March 19th to allow another weekend for those who might be out of town or busy with family activities this week to get back on GoodReads :-)

[Dolly]

My votes:

Mythological Creatures: A Classical Bestiary

Let's Go, Pegasus!

Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent

The Tomten

Guess What I Found in Dragon Wood

[Jenny]

The Dragon and the Unicorn
The Tomten
The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek
The dot com Leprechaun
Guess What I Found in Dragon Wood

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

(Yay! I'm glad the extension is allowing more people to participate. Thank you for voting!)

[David]

my five choices are:

The Tomten

The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek

Golem

Fin M'Coul: the Giant of Knockmany Hill

Jethro Byrd Fairy Child

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Thanks to all who voted. The results are in and here are the books we'll be reading in April:

Golem

Guess What I Found in Dragon Wood

The Tomten

The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek

Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child

Sixth/Alternate Title:
The Dragon and the Unicorn

I hope you can all obtain these and join us for the discussion come April :-)

This thread now becomes the "Master List and General Discussion" discussion--I imagine I will try to read a few of the books that didn't make our official six. So many great books, and mystical creatures, to choose from :-)

[Manybooks]

Well, my library only has Golem and the The Dragon and the Unicorn, so I am not all that pleased with this list. I will try to get the other books through ILL, but I have a feeling some of them will not be readily available.

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Gundula wrote: "Well, my library only has Golem and the The Dragon and the Unicorn, so I am not all that pleased with this list. I will try to get the other books through ILL, but I hav..."

:-( Too bad. I hope you can get some through ILL.

Well, if you decide to read any of the other books from the master list, please post back. Some of my favorite mystical creatures didn't make the official list, so I'll probably check out some of the other books and post back here with my thoughts.

[David]

My system has 4 of these. I'll either have to try ILL or go to another system that has reciprocal borrowing to get Guess What I found in Dragon Wood and The Dragon and the Unicorn.

[Dolly]

I have looked at all of the libraries I have access to and cannot seem to find The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek - perhaps I can see if we can download it to my hubby's new iPad...

We've already read Golem as part of our adventure through reading all of the Caldecott Medal winners. It is a terrific story, but I doubt we'll read it again.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest!

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

David and Dolly, glad you are both on board, too :-)

[Zoe]

Wow! I am not going to vote because I would be happy with any of these! I've read some. The tomten is charming. My eight year old is a dragon nut, so we will be reading all of them ( well, I'm actually having knee surgery tomorrow, so as soon as we can get to the library....)

[Kathryn, The Princess of Picture-Books]

Oh, good luck on your knee surgery, Zoe! I hope it goes well and that you are able to get to the library again soon :-)

[Tricia]

Zoe wrote: "Wow! I am not going to vote because I would be happy with any of these! I've read some. The tomten is charming. My eight year old is a dragon nut, so we will be reading all of them ( well, I'm actu..."

Good luck on your knee surgery from me too. I'm looking at it in a few months, so I'll be interested in what you think and how you did. Be good.

[Manybooks]

For a wonderful original fairy tale, set in Newfoundland, I highly recommend The dot com Leprechaun. It tells the story of Lucy, a young Newfoundland girl who is about to face the loss of her beloved ocean-side family home (times are tough on the Bonavista Peninsula, and Lucy's parents are simply unable to continue to make payments on their home). While distracting herself with her computer, Lucy encounters a leprechaun (a leprechaun who has been magically transported into her computer by the volatile and moody witch Elfrieda, and who requires Lucy's assistance). Before moonrise, Lucy must go down to the eerie root cellar of her house, retrieve the silver satin shoes the leprechaun made for Elfrieda, and then convince the witch that these shoes fit, that the leprechaun did not make shoes too small for Elfrieda's big feet. Otherwise, the witch will cast a spell, forever turning the leprechaun Caboto (Caboto, not Rumpelstiltskin, as stated by the leprechaun himself) into a cyber-leprechaun. Will Lucy be brave enough to venture into the creepy, uncanny root cellar? Will she have enough courage to help Caboto, and perhaps, by helping him, also help herself and her family?

With an engaging text and evocative, lovely illustrations, Caroline Stellings deftly combines traditional folklore, historical detail and modern computer-lingo (all framed by the specter of poverty, of a family about to lose their home, their ocean-side sanctuary). Both emotionally poignant and gently witty, both historically informative and fantastical, The dot com Leprechaun weaves a magical, sweetly enjoyable tapestry of text and image. Narrative and illustrations not only show the fantasy, the pathos, the humour of the story-line, they are also evocative of the sights, sounds, the very presence of Newfoundland, no mean feat, considering that the author has actually never been to Newfoundland.

Recommended for children interested in magical creatures, especially leprechauns and other "Little People" The dot com Leprechaun would also be a good first introduction to Newfoundland history (particularly John Cabot, whose background and achievements are presented in an excellent and informative authors's note, along with details about the historical significance of root cellars). Furthermore, I believe that The dot com Leprechaun would be a wonderful book to gently, but firmly introduce younger children to some of the current economic woes facing many Newfoundlanders (the threat of losing their homes, the fact that with the decline of the fisheries, many Newfoundlanders have been forced to leave the island and find work elsewhere, such as Ontario and Alberta).