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!

Tiny Dinosaur Museum and Tiny Safari (Whitman, 1975 and 1976)

What's more fun to a kid than a menagerie of living, breathing dinosaurs, knocking over trees and each other in the forest primeval?

Why, seeing static exhibits of dinosaurs in a museum, of course.

At least that's what someone at Whitman thought when putting together this adorable Tiny Dinosaur Museum Press-Out book (1975. Original price just 59 cents!).

In fairness, the only tip off that these dinosaurs aren't alive and teething are the exhibit stands they are meant to perch on, which attach separately. Stands attached = educational museum experience. Stands detached = Jurassic rampage!

If only Whitman had provided prehistorically inaccurate cheetah-print toga-wearing cavemen instead of these completely non-threatening museum patrons...

Did I say non-threatening? This security guard seems to be toting a pretty large truncheon.

I suppose that could just be a pointer to direct your attention to various details of the exhibits, but I'd rather believe the museum has seen better days and is currently experiencing a youth gang problem...

The museum setting was ditched for Tiny Safari (1976).

These are real animals in a real jungle, pursued by real hunters!

In real khakis!

Don't worry about the rifles on display--they aren't shooting to kill.

These happy animals are destined for the zoo, not the trophy room.

I previously posted on Dr. Popdoodle's Monster Sticker Book, which I discovered, having reunited with it decades after originally owning it as a child, was a Whitman book as well. These things used to sell at the local drug store and were a cheap way for the harried parent to keep their brats quiet while they waited for their prescription.

A lucky kid with both the Tiny Dinosaur Museum AND Tiny Safari books could mix-and-match the pieces and go on a dinosaur hunting safari (or better yet, put the museum patrons in a human zoo...)

Full scan of both books with selected details below.