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.