Review: A Little Book of Monsters by Llyn Hunter

by Chriss Cornish published: November 30, 2007 No Comments

This Book Is About

Since the dawn of time, humans have imagined strange creatures to be the servants of the gods, bringers of good and ill fortune, and things that go bump in the night. Within is a small sampling of these beings from across the world and time, described in simple verse for enlightenment and pleasure.

My Thoughts On This Book

Page scan of 'A' for 'Ammut' from A Little Book of Monsters I discovered this gem at the 2007 ComiCon and bought one for me, one for my friend’s birthday, one for my sister’s birthday, and one for each of my friends with kids. The illustrations are charming and fun, with a touch of humor that is reflected in the poem accompanying each. I was delighted to see a copy on the graphic novel shelf at Borderlands in San Francisco the other week.

The book is an A to Z of monsters and creatures from cultures across the globe, with a beast or being for each letter of the alphabet (i.e. ‘O’ is for ogre). The monsters in The Little Book are Ammut, basilisk, Cerberus, dragon, Echidna, Fenrir, griffin, hippocamp, imp, jinn, kraken, lung, Medusa, nix, ogre, pegasus, qilin, roc, satyr, tengu, unicorn, vampire, wyvern, Xiuhcoatl, yale and zombie.

Scan of the imp illustration from A Little Book of Monsters I actually hadn’t heard of the yale or the nix before, and I’m more familiar with the Mayan culture so I didn’t know that Xiuhcoatl was the Aztec’s equivalent to the Maya’s god Chac. And Llyn’s illustration for the imp is a very folklore inspired one as opposed to the typical mini-demon rendering.

So you can get a sample of the little rhymes, here’s the first stanza from the poem for Ammut:

Anubis’s servant
Ammut sits at his feet,
Anxiously waiting
for something to eat.

A Little Book of Monsters is a self-published work, so, even though it has an ISBN and could be ordered by your local bookstore, it is easiest to just buy your copy online directly from the artist and author.