Discover Dragons, Giants, and Other Deadly Fantasy Monsters

Gr 1–3—This set covers myriad fantasy creatures, providing dimensions, facts, and artist renderings. In each book, subjects are grouped into thematic sections ("Deadly," "Wondrous," "Mythical," and "Nasty"), with each receiving a fact box that outlines the creature's size, home, diet, and life span followed by a description of its appearance and behavior, a color illustration, and vocabulary definitions. Some of the beings may be unfamiliar (e.g., the two-headed ettins, which never bathe and stink of sweat and rotting food—and you thought ogres were disgusting?). Design elements and the simplicity of the texts provide early readers with an introduction to the foes they may discover later in series like "Harry Potter" and Rick Riordan's selections. Readers will appreciate the detailed artwork where weaponry is given added attention. A quiz with basic questions is included to test knowledge after reading.