Fantasy Encyclopedia
by Judy Allen
Fantasy Encyclopedia is meant for Grades 4-8 students and library use. You'd expect a full-color large-format fantasy encyclopedia to be a wonderful library edition. But this book is disappointing in its scope and in its depth. The book is a guide to the creatures and peoples of fantasy, mythology, and folklore. Over 50 character types are covered in 9 chapters.
The chapters cover "The Little People," "Mysterious Animals," "Ghosts and Spirits," etc. Each major section in a chapter has a few introductory paragraphs followed by illustrations with captions. This by itself is not so bad, but the book then adds plugs for popular movies and books in which the creatures appeared. So you get disgenuine references to Narnia, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc. You don't get a real feel for how these creatures are used in fantasy. You do get the sense that references to Narnia, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings are placements. A more thorough treatment of the subject would have included much more detail and a better cross section with much better sampling.
Hopefully a revised and significantly expanded edition is in the works.