Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods

Starred review from July 13, 2015
Described as a “reimagining” of an early 20th-century book of the same name by William Cox, this delightful collection of tall tales stands on its own as an exploration of weird creatures from American folklore. From the giant land fish known as the slide-rock bolter to the long-limbed acropelter, “closely related to the African baboon but slightly more evil,” animals of myth and legend populate the pages, making Johnson’s (Immortal Lycanthropes) collection a perfect way to introduce younger readers to cryptozoology. An unnamed narrator spins cautionary tales in which unwary travelers, unwise hunters, and unexpected historical figures encounter cactus cats, hodags, hoop snakes, squonks, and more—each entry stranger and more tongue-in-cheek than the one before. Off-kilter typography gives the stories an additional air of sur­reality, while Mead renders the creatures with expressive detail, bringing them (or the unfortunate aftermaths of their encounters) to life in creepy b&w cartoons. These are stories to be read late at night to an audience willing to be surprised, startled, and kept up wondering about what might lurk nearby. Ages 9–12.

Starred review from August 1, 2015

Gr 5-7-Look out for what's lurking around every corner. The book is told from the perspective of a cryptozoologist who focuses on the lumberwoods of North America and who recounts many painful and horrifying incidents he witnessed during his years of seeking the most bizarre creatures. He begins with the very dangerous hodag, a rhinoceros critter with a bull horn and a spiny back. Things don't go well when traveling shysters set up a tent claiming to have captured the fierce hodag. Instead, they regale paying customers with sinister hodag tales and play a recorded hodag sound. Eventually, the real thing ruins their scheme with disastrous consequences. Tales of other creatures, such as the leprocaun, not only deliver vile results but also eerily tickle the funny bone. Another creature featured here is the cactus cat, related to beavers because he was once cornered by a wolverine and forced to run up a tree for safety. Also referred to as a wampus cat, he now has a spiked ball at the end of his tail, which he uses to slash unsuspecting victims who don't realize they are riddled with holes until they eat a meal and it pours out of multiple openings in their bellies. These tales demand to be savored in all their weirdness and gore. The tongue-in-cheek humor will keep readers engaged. Touted as examples of beasts from American folklore, each feral varmint is elaborately illustrated in black and white. The book concludes with a quick go-to guide of fearsome facts to aid in identifying any of these creatures that readers may meet in the wild. A captivating collection for fans of Alvin Schwartz's Scary Tales to Tell in the Dark, this is also ideal for those looking for something fresh, creative, and deliciously creepy. VERDICT Outstanding faux-lore creature tales that will blow away middle school readers.-Julie Shatterly, W. A. Bess Elementary School, Gastonia, NC

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2015
A revised and considerably expanded version of one of the foundational guides to North American boojums, with (wait for it) glow-in-the-dark illustrations! Johnson leaves out the splinter cat but adds the hoop snake, whose poison is "worse than a Frenchman's socks," to the roster of a 1910 original that was loosely based on lumberjacks' yarns. And what a roster! From the hodag-"three thousand pounds of pure carnivorous appetite"-and the noxious immigrant leprocaun to the squirrellike wapaloosie, which will eagerly skitter up the nearest tree even when killed and made into a scarf, these 20 rare creatures are not only wildly peculiar of habit, but as likely as not to bring gruesome death-or worse. Taking particular aim at the French, Johnson expands on the original writer's terse descriptions with colorful accounts of tragic encounters, personal observations as an aspirant to the Nobel Prize in cryptozoology, addenda (the "entire [hoop snake chapter] is false"), and a closing gallery of such summary facts as habitats, diets, and relative "fearsomeness" and "absurdity." Mead gives both of these latter qualities visual expression with portraits of variously horned, fanged, grimacing monsters at each entry's head, plus internal vignettes, bloodstains, and occasional double-page scenes of carnage. Luminescent ink on the cover and eight inside illustrations offers extra thrills in dimmer settings. A folk treasure as well as required reading for hikers, trail bikers, and would-be cryptid hunters. (annotated bibliography) (Folklore/fantasy. 10-13)

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Starred review from September 15, 2015
Grades 4-8 *Starred Review* What would you do if you came across a hodag, three thousand pounds of pure carnivorous appetite ? Or perhaps the shadow-eating snoligoster that first impales its victims on its large dorsal spike? These are but 2 of the 20 fearsome creatures in Johnson's gleefully spine-chilling tales, told as a cryptozoologist's firsthand account of beastly encounters in the North American Lumberwoods. They are also the stuff of nightmares and urban legends. Well, sort of. Johnson steers clear of abject terror by weaving a thread of humor throughout, evidenced in the narrator's editorializing, including his apparent dislike of Frenchmen, and pronouncements such as The most fearsome creature, dear reader, is unpreparedness. It is for this reason that I award the toteroad shagamaw second place. Mead's black-and-white illustrations are horrible in the best sense, ramping up each tale's tension and fear factor to levels of delightful squirming. This reimagining of William T. Cox's Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods (1913) strikes a similar chord to Alvin Schwartz's classic Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1981), and it is particularly well-suited to flashlight readingthough its glow-in-the-dark cover continues to menace even when the lights are out. Yes, people meet ghastly ends, and the creatures are inescapably dreadful, but isn't that exactly what young, literary thrill-seekers are after? Wildly imaginative and delightfully macabre.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)