The Mystic Phyles: Beasts
by Stephanie Brockway ,
Illustrations by Ralph Masiello and Stephanie Brockway
2011, Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc
Review by Debra Louise Scott
The Mystic Phyles is written as a journal found in an old house by Brockway and Masiello. The author is Abigail Thaddeus, an eighth grader who lives in a creaky old Victorian house with bats in the attic, an overprotective grandfather, and a grandmother as batty as the denizens of the attic.
On her 13th birthday, she receives a mysterious letter from a black cat, telling her she must learn all she can about beasts long forgotten. So she goes to the library and the librarian gives her a key and directions to a musty old room with locked cabinets. The key fits the last cabinet holding a single book; the “Bestiary Masielus”. Then when she opens up an old book in the library, she finds a letter addressed to her, telling her to study all about mythical beasts. With the help of her best friend Charley, she fills her journal with all the interesting stuff she can find on everything from dragons to the dread Barguest. She also writes of the bullies that torment her, the boy she thinks never notices her, the girls that tease her, and her eccentric grandparents. Then she gets a threatening letter from the Board of Mystical Management…
This is an absolutely delightful book filled with scribbles, doodles, and greasy fingerprints. Abigail’s notes include historical quotes from Herodotus (400 BCE) to Hans Egede (Greenland, 1734 CE), old news clippings, and possible modern explanations for the creature. The adventures and suspense are page turning fun, the information about the creatures is fascinating, and the daily foibles of middle school are real.
5 Stars, straight up and down… and in the attic.
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