Don't Let the Beasties Escape This Book!

I love bestiaries. I love the illuminations, and the weird descriptions of creatures, and the entire concept of a book full of wonderful beasts! This picture book is a lovely introduction to some of the fantasy creatures you might meet in the pages of a real-life bestiary.

Visually, this book is a real treat, and I spent a long time looking at each page to capture all the details. The colours are incredible. You can see from the cover image how bright and enthralling they are – it’s really pretty and also very true to the actual look of an illuminated manuscript. The dusty brown of the courtyard evokes the parchment pages, and the beasts absolutely shine out from it, holding the eye and the imagination.

The story itself is very sweet, involving Geoffrey, a young boy who “borrows” a bestiary from a scribe and spends the rest of the day making up tales about a knight with his name who meets the beasties from the pages! As he mentions each beast, it pops out of the bestiary and comes to life, but Geoffrey is oblivious… It’s not a particularly convoluted plot, but it works to show off the creatures, and is, in a way, a bestiary itself! There’s a lot of subtle humour in the story, which I think would make this appeal to adults as well as children, and there’s plenty of charm in the writing. It would make a really cute gift, especially for historians who have young kids!

Five out of five stars!

This is a lovely introduction for children into Medieval times! The artwork is fantastic, and it introduces some mythical creatures that are not as well-known along with some familiar favorites. The text in the back is very informative, and the legends from actual bestiaries would make a lovely addition to any bookshelf.

A gorgeous book on medieval manuscript artwork by the Getty Museum. The book drew its inspiration from the museum's exhibit "Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World" and features illustrations from their collections.

The main story is sure to delight young children. The story is fun and fresh, and the artwork is beautiful—detailed, colorful, and mimics medieval scribal techniques. For older children, the book has a section on medieval life in a castle and the medieval bestiary with actual illustrations of beasts and explanations as to their meaning. As a fan of children's picture books and an amateur student of medieval manuscripts, this was a book after my own heart.

The whimsical story follows an ordinary peasant boy dreaming of life as a valiant knight in the Late Middle Ages (thirteenth century): Sir Godfrey the Gallant, Sir Godfrey the Glorious, Sir Godfrey the Goodhearted. His favorite book is about medieval bestiaries but filled only with pictures. He is hoping that when the castle scribe ultimately finishes the book, it will tell a heroic tale of a bold, brave knight. As he goes about his chores, his imagination takes flight, and the mischievous animals walk out of the pages of the book, causing him to flex his knightly skills. Some of the beasts help him with his chores and interact with the regular farm animals.

This review will be posted on Cogitations & Meditations at the end of May.

A young boy with a vivid imagination gets distracted from his chores when he finds a magical book of beasts. While he fights lions, unicorns and dragons he somehow manages to complete his chores. An adventurous story sure to entertain young children while introducing them to medieval times and mythical creatures. The bestiary is sure to be read and re-read by animal loving children.

A whimsical flight of fancy, Don't Let the Beasties Escape this Book provides the reader with a thrilling story. As young Godfrey, a castle servant, goes about his chores, he conjures up a fantastic tale in his imagination, using an unfinished picture book as his guide. Young readers will be thrilled to see what Godfrey doesn't, as the creatures come alive and leap out of the book's pages. This is a fun, interactive tale of imagination and life in the middle ages. It would most appeal to readers in grades kindergarten through second grade, and would be a popular addition to any elementary library collection.

Charmingly illustrated in muted colour pencil, Don’t Let the Beasties Escape This Book is a humorous and enjoyable read for the monster-, mythical-creature- or medieval-loving child. This picture book is short enough to fit into a rushed bedtime routine, but rich enough in detail to invite readers to search for all the different things going on on each page.

My 5-year-old was immediately drawn to the enticing cover with its giant, looming dragon, and he loved following the adventures of Godfrey, distracted by his lively imagination and oblivious to the chaos left in his stead as he goes about fulfilling his daily chores. There are plenty of giggles and gasps to be found in this book, as the text and illustrations grow more and more excited and busy until our own bestiary seems so full of monsters that it’s ready to spill over into this side of reality.

The notes to the reader at the back of the book present a wonderful opportunity to talk about what life may have been like for people living in medieval Europe, about myths and legends and bestiaries (which inspired this very book!), and introduce a few lesser-known monsters children may not be familiar with to expand their knowledge of lore.

When a peasant boy can’t resist looking at the bestiary book an illuminator is working on in the castle, he makes up a story about the animals and his chores suddenly get a lot more interesting than even he realizes.

I definitely recommend reading the back of this book. (In fact, it might make it an even better experience to read the back matter first and then the story.) It was fascinating to learn more about original bestiaries and how those inspired this tale. There’s also good information for kids on normal life in Medieval times. The book will likely introduce readers to some mythical creatures they haven’t met before, and it is a lightly humorous tale with vivid illustrations. The back matter includes opportunities for kids to separate fact from fiction in what original bestiaries said about various animals. The story itself also presents a great way to introduce text boxes and how those can relate to the story in different ways. In this book the text boxes could be interpreted as a narrator comment or an old-style chapter heading while the text on the page is the story the boy makes up. A great book to use when studying Medieval times with kids, for kids curious about book history, and of course, fans of those mythical beasties.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a delightful book for anyone who likes manuscripts, beasts both real and fantastic, and stories about kids with overactive imaginations. Godfrey (or, as he sees himself, SIR Godfrey) is a medieval boy who would rather look at the bestiary in production for the lady of the castle than do his chores, and much like the Sorcerer's Apprentice, he imagines the creatures described in the bestiary helping him.

The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, in part based on manuscripts in an exhibit at the Getty, and somehow April Lee manages to draw in a modern style that feels medieval. The one drawback of having to read this on my computer is that it's meant to be read as a physical book, with illustrations often spanning a two-page spread, which is frustrating when you have to zoom in to read the text. This is no fault of the book or its creators, just a comment that you should get a physical copy (I have no idea if it will be released digitally) because that's the best way to read something like this. Like the bestiaries they replicate, the pictures are colorful and lively, with something fun happening even in the smallest details.

The book ends with a historical note that puts bestiaries, and what medieval people got from them, into context-- most people had no real way of knowing what was out in the world far away, and many of the creatures were actually believable-- compared to a rhino, a unicorn doesn't sound all that strange. I really like this. There's a major misconception in our popular culture that people in the Middle Ages were stupid and believed ridiculous things like unicorns, dog-headed people, that the Earth is flat (which they didn't, by the way). The truth is they weren't stupid, they just didn't have the cumulative knowledge we have today, and many things medieval people believed, or at least what they presented as some level of factual, aren't really that strange considering the information they had. Bestiaries are a good example of this, and this book portrays that well. It also includes a section of descriptions and images of creatures from actual bestiaries, which is another good historical note.

This is definitely a book I hope to someday have a physical copy of to read to my young cousins in the hopes that they'll become medievalists. Or at least in the hopes they'll like it.

My Review: This is such a fun children's book, I loved the art style, it really suited the story's setting. It is a great book to read with slightly older children as opposed to very young toddlers, as they will be able to grasp the lesson in the book better. Kids will see that their chore list might not be so bad since they don't have to clean up the barn or start the fire for dinner, but they will also see that imagination can make the job go quicker and make it a whole lot more fun. We really had a fun time with this book, and loved that at the end there are some great descriptions and history on the various beasties released in the book.

My Rating: We really enjoyed this one, even though Munchkin is pretty much done with picture books, he was still really able to get a lot out of this story! The illustrations were beautiful and fun to look at the details of the beasts. We give it a rating of Four Paws!

One of the most magical things about childhood is the ability to take a mundane task and make it fun and exciting through imagination. As we grow older, we seem to lose this ability - or at least, lose the feeling of freedom to use it. Godfrey is a young boy who, upon finding a bestiary on the way to beginning his chores, allows his imagination to take over. Suddenly, he's no longer just sweeping and cleaning and working, but he's on endless adventures. Each quest just so happens to help him accomplish his real-life chore, but it certainly doesn't feel like "work" anymore to Godfrey.



This book was enchanting and sweet and fun. The illustrations are so engaging. Each picture lends to the impression that Godfrey's imagination is so much bigger than just himself. He is often a small piece of a picture, with the adventure he's having filling the entire page with vibrant color and dynamic action.



My two children adored this book. My son, especially, who is 9, has returned to read this book over and over again. I highly recommend this for all middle-grade readers.

The artwork in this book is gorgeous! Who doesn’t love mythical creatures and a good story. While a children’s book by intent, there is plenty here to appreciate as an adult and particularly as a parent. Adults as much as children will look forward to reading this book and being captivated by the detailed colored pencil artwork throughout. Sheer eye candy, I love the illustrators style and color templates. A great introduction to the fantasy genre and mythical animals for children, highly recommend!

This was absolutely adorable and reminds you that children of all ages and all eras can use their imagination. The artwork was really good too.

I think I'm being followed....

Godfrey, a peasant boy, finds a book about beasts while doing his chores. As he reads, he imagines himself defeating the mythological creatures, who unknown to him, come to life and inadvertently help with his chores.