Review: Forgotten Beasts: Amazing Creatures That Once Roamed the Earth, by Matt Sewell

Abstract

The pages of Forgotten Beasts are full of captivating watercolors of some of our favorite, as well as some lesser-known, extinct species. When we think about living things long (or not so long) past, it seems as though we all have favorites, but as this book highlights, while dinosaurs are one part of our planet's past, there are a great many other amazing beasts with which we might not be as familiar. The pages combine brief bits of information with pictures of what we think these creatures may have looked like. I was impressed to see the inclusion of Gigantopithecus, Dunkleosteus, and the woolly mammoth. One of my son's favorite aspects of the pictures is the vivid colors used, which the author highlights, noting that so many of the representations we have seen in the past have been in shades of brown. This a lovely book for the classroom and for readers young or old.