Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You is a gorgeous children’s picture book. The illustrations are reminiscent of ye dole worlde English botanist’s sketches slash Beatrix Potter-ish style images, and there’s a mix of genres from descriptions and captions to narratives about the different creatures to link to the novels written by the same author. From amazon.com:
The superdeluxe, lavishly illustrated “field guide” features 142 information-packed pages, 41 full-color plates, 6 spectacular gatefolds, 6 watercolor landscapes, scores of black-and-white and color sketches, and enough information to satisfy even the most demanding faerie enthusiast. Not only will readers learn all about the 14 fantastical creatures featured in the series, but they’ll be delighted and astonished by an additional 15 creatures featured in this elaborate volume–including mermaids, gargoyles, and more. And if that weren’t enough, we’ve included dozens of snippets from Arthur Spiderwick’s personal journal–information that links the Guide specifically to the Spiderwick Chronicles–as well as cameos from a few of the series’ favorite characters.
Here are some examples of the lush art work:
and here’s an example of one of the “gatefolds” - a glorious pull out double page spread:
Irresistible! Now I just have to weave this into my units next year when teaching about genre and visual literacy :>
