It's the end of August at the Hotel Ozone, and the perfect time to review a paranormal pocket primer for scholastic readers courtesy mid-century pop-sci writer Daniel Cohen! All the stars are out tonight: Bigfoot and the Yeti, Nessie, giant squids and sea serpents, and Cohen gives them all grounded summaries in his smooth, unpretentious style. There are more than a few nice illustrations, including the diagram above of a shark rotting into a "sea serpent" and some funny looking 16th century snake drawings. Cohen includes an index, which isn't always a given with this genre!
Cohen was a member of CSICOP (nowadays known as CSI), the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and leavens his writing with the appropriate amount of skepticism while avoiding the tone of a debunker. He also avoids the syrupy tone that plagues inferior authors writing for young readers.
An Archway Paperback published by Pocket Books, 1977 (original pub. 1975)
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