Monsters: Fiendish Facts, Quivery Quizzes and Other Grisly Goings-on (A Golden Family Funtime Book, 1977)

This entry in the "Golden Family Funtime" series is called (take a breath...) "Monsters: Fiendish Facts, Quivery Quizzes and Other Grisly Goings-on", a collection of essays, puzzles, games and trivia revolving around all things monster. Written by Donald F. Glut (he also wrote, interestingly, the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back, among other comic and horror titles for kids) and illustrated by Dennis Hockerman (cover only) and Carole Jean Bourke (interiors), "Monsters" offers a fairly comprehensive overview of the monster genre with an emphasis on their presentation in books and films, padded out with a little cryptozoology for good measure.

Categories of monster reviewed here include the literary (Frankenstein's Monster, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde)...

...traditional/folklore (Werewolves, Vampires, Mummies, Voodoo Terrors)...

Werewolf indicators. Keep the tweezers handy if you want to pass for normal.

A depiction of the burning at the stake of accused werewolf Stubbe Peter, Germany, March 31, 1590.

...and cryptozoological/extra-terrestrial "real world" monsters (Prehistoric Monsters, Monsters From Outer Space, and Abominable Beasts).

The quizzes revolve around monster movies and are actually kind of fun and require some knowledge of the genre. "Creature Color Contest" asks you to complete the movie title with the correct color name.

"Dracula's Countdown" is the same concept, but using numbers selected from a list.

Simbar the Werelion (a character from the comic book "The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor") challenges you to match the actor to the monster they portrayed.

There are a few visual puzzles as well, challenging you to find hidden animals in a drawing (The 13 Black Cats and Find the Missing Werewolves)...

...plus the party game where you stare at a picture for a period of time and then are expected to answer questions about details of the picture from memory (No Hyde-Ing Place).

Optical illusions and magic tricks are found here as well, including the severed-finger gag I remember from Spooky Tricks (presented here as Frankenstein's Finger).

There's a board game "Escape To the Castle" that takes up a two-page spread...

...and finally, Sinister Shadows demonstrates how to make Godzilla, a werewolf, vampire bat, and other monsters with your hands.

Other entries in the Golden Family Funtime Books series focused on crafts, games, magic, and riddles. Take a look at that funtime family!

Bigfoot, Monster at Loch Ness, and The Abominable Snowman (Raintree Children's Books, 1977)

One of my obsessions as a child of the 70s was the mysterious world of cryptozoology. Raintree Children's Books published an extensive series of non-fiction books on the unknown and the supernatural, with titles covering a wide range of topics from Atlantis to UFOS, as well as my old favorites, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Abominable (thank you, spell-check!) Snowman.

The text of these books is aimed at very young readers, and to describe the illustrations as amateurish would be generous, but they seem to adequately cover the basics of their respective topics. Here are a few scans.

From Bigfoot: Man, Monster, or Myth? (Carrie Carmichael, 1977)




Next up, Monster at Loch Ness (Sally Berke, 1977)

The Loch Ness Monster has been described by various witnesses as resembling a frog, a horse, a camel and a dragon. They can't all be right...


Below is a photo of Tom Dinsdale, creator of a composite Loch Ness Monster model that attempts to integrate the description from several sightings. He and his model also appear in the 1973 Disney short film Man, Monsters and Mysteries.

This next illustration depicts a tongue-in-cheek attempt in 1976 to lure Nessie to the surface with a decoy "lady" monster, complete with comically large eyelashes.




Finally, The Abominable Snowman (Barbara Antonopulos, 1977)

This page depicts the three types of yeti the Himalayan sherpas claim to have seen, along with the names they've given to each. (Thelma?)

The Boy Who Saw Bigfoot (Marian T. Place, 1979)

The Boy Who Saw Bigfoot (Marian T. Place, 1979) is the fictional(?) story of ten-year old orphan Joey Wilson, who encounters a Bigfoot monster shortly after being adopted by a lumberjack family living in a remote log cabin in the forests of southwest Washington.

You'll be pleased to know this title was hand selected by the prestigious Weekly Reader Selection Board for inclusion in the Weekly Reader Book family.

The story, told in the first person by Joey himself, is enjoyable enough, but what makes this book even more interesting is the blatant product placement. On page one (and a few other times in later chapters) of this Weekly Reader Book we learn that Joey's story was allegedly covered as news in a little magazine you may have heard of... The Weekly Reader.

Later, after Joey has revealed the details of his Bigfoot encounter at school, his teacher explores the subject with the class, reading from a library book called On the Track of Bigfoot.

Who would have guessed this is a real book written by none other than... Marian T. Place?

Both books are out of print as of this writing.