Tales of Scary Beasts: Six hair-raising mysteries to investigate if you dare!
Written by Susan Martineau, illustrated by Vicky Barker
- Presents real-life, bone chilling mysteries
- Encourages critical thinking
- A spooky information book and reader combined
The Loch Ness Monster, the Abominable Snowman, the giant tentacled Kraken and the Beast of Bodmin – these are just a few of the fearsome creatures encountered in this book of six mysterious case studies. Each case study has its own chapter, relating the scary tales of explorers and adventurers, both ancient and modern, and their spooky encounters. Each case study provides details of sightings and first-hand witness accounts. A following Let’s Investigate section encourages critical thinking by looking at the evidence, eyewitness statements and theories that surround these bone-chilling stories. The reader must decide whether each terrifying tale is true or not!
The text is highly readable, and difficult key words such as ‘abominable’, ‘allegedly’ and ‘indigenous’ are called out and explained. The book also includes a Glossary and two pages of tips for mystery investigators. The graphic illustrations, including diagrams and maps of creatures sighted around the world, help support the text by being both informative and mysterious at the same time.
In a few places the text is printed on a dark-coloured background, which may make it difficult to read for some children.
Susan Martineau and Vicky Barker are the award-winning team behind a previous book, Real-Life Mysteries, which won the Blue Peter Award for Best Book with Facts. In Tales of Scary Beasts they allow the curious reader to be the chief investigator, trying to understand and evaluate the facts of each case and decide what exactly is true within each story.
This is an excellent book for children who are fascinated by myths and legends, and for all those curious readers who like to choose a book that combines information with reading for pleasure.
Published by bsmall, 2025
