Book Review: Secret Stories of Lost Beasts

There are plenty of animals that used to exist on Earth that seem like they aren’t real, but they once were. Kids who love dinosaurs and other ancient creatures will enjoy Secret Stories of Lost Beasts: A Field Guide to Uncover Earth’s Ancient Animals by Sasika Gwinn, illustrated by Vasillia Romanenko.

The book is designed like a field guide showing different extinct animals with detailed illustrations and a paragraph about each one. Here you’ll find:

amphibians
reptiles
dinosaurs
sea beasts
mammals
Ice Age mammals
bugs
birds

Readers will learn about animals like beezlebufo, or the devil frog, who lived alongside dinosaurs and may have been the heaviest frog who ever lived; staganolepis, a plant-eating, bony scaled reptile with a tail like a crocodile and a snout like a pig; mamenchisaurus, thought to have the longest neck of any dinosaur; the Tully monster, a creature so confusing scientists aren’t sure was a vertebrate or invertebrate; juramaia, the oldest known mammal ancestor that gave birth to live young; glytopdons, which looked like giant armadillos; animals of the Bering land bridge like woolly mammoth, Irish elk and giant sloths; the giant dragonfly meganeura monyi; birds with teeth like the woodpecker-like enanttiophoenix; big birds like the giant auk and Tasmanian emu; among many others.

Additional text includes information on things like the giant asteroid, carboniferous forests, the time period known as the great dying, and more.

In the back of the book you’ll find a timeline for these creatures and more recently lost animals, as well as a few endangered species like the deer-like silver-backed chevrotain.

Kids who love animals, especially dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals that are extinct, are sure to enjoy looking at the pictures in this book and learning more about these strange animals that seem like something out of legend. If you want to see if your dino-loving kid’s interests can expand to other animals, this might just be the book to do it.

About the book: 64 pages, hardcover. Published 2025 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $24.99.

Hispanic Heritage Month runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 each year (because it celebrates the time period when several countries gained their independence) and it’s a great time to bring in some Hispanic inspired crafts and foods. For an overview on the celebration, the difference between Hispanic and Latino and the importance of the holiday, as well as a look at Latino art and famous Latinos and Latinas, check out this post and related information from the National Museum of the American Latino.

Spanish Playground has a great collection of craft ideas that you can do in Spanish class or with kids in any class or at home. It includes things like weaving, making mola (folk art from Panama; learn more at Kid World Citizen), doing an artist study of a Hispanic artist and more.

Crafty Chica has a great collection of crafts, coloring pages and printables for celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with kids. I love this coloring page inspired by Amante bark painting, but there are also folk art stamps, corn husk dolls, tile painting ideas and more.

Papel picado is a classic folk art from Mexico that will feel familiar if you’ve ever made a paper snowflake. Learn how to make them from tissue paper with this video from Hispanic Society Museum and Library.

Learn more about Hispanic Heritage Month, get recipes and crafts from PBS Kids. I love this Peruvian siku flute, which can be made with old markers or paper straws.

While not exactly a craft, playing loteria (a Spanish language bingo game) is a fun thing to do with a group of kids. Free Kids Crafts has printable bingo cards with basic Spanish vocabulary and images for people who don’t already know these words.

And if you need a little snack when you’re done crafting, try these no bake mini tres leches cakes from Inspired by Family. They’re made with purchased pound cake so they’re pretty fast and easy.

Have you read?

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