Searching for Bigfoot

Gr 4–6—Characterized by well-balanced measures of skepticism and willingness to believe, these portraits of prominent cryptids offer a mix of tantalizing eyewitness accounts and legends, "evidence" either inscrutable or noted as proven bogus, and rousing, sometimes gruesome illustrations. Searching for the Yeti notes supposed evidence of the creature, such as sightings by Everest climbers Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay and photos of footprints taken by mountaineer Eric Shipton. The ravening beasts described and depicted in the volumes covering El Chupacabra (a creature "taking alarming eating habits to a whole new level.") and the Wendigo ("Cannibalism makes for interesting stories.") are particularly frightening and therefore likely to be a strong draw for young monster lovers. Searching for UFOs includes a juicy discussion of conspiracy theories, and elsewhere the author expands her major subjects to mentions of related creatures from kelpiesto the (original) Jersey Devil and the supposed "Wendigo Psychosis." This series overlaps but also extends John Hawkins's Bigfoot and Other Monsters (PowerKids, 2012).