Interesting collection of concepts and views around the world of animals. Some I knew, others I didn’t. For example, a snake’s shedded skin would prevent a house burning. A lot of sayings, beliefs from myth and religion, including illnesses cures and prevention. At times felt like it jumped around a bit, and more specific on which country or culture of origin would help, but these points are minor. Would recommend this book. A fun reference book.

Poorly structured and poorly edited. Also, do not get me started on all the factual errors! Why was this not better edited? Why was so little care taken when presenting ideas? Too many things were stated as facts that simply were not and others were greatly implied to be wholly true when they were flights of fancy. This was a chore to read.

I didn't love this book. The outside cover is so attractive, but the inside is severely lacking. I enjoyed some of the stories in the book, but a lot of the facts seemed incorrect.

I was looking forward to this book about animal lore and legends. The information was staggered throughout the book and felt very unorganized and disjointed. While there is good information, there definitely needs to be some reorganization.

this was a quick read with short snippets of interesting info. maybe it was the e-reader version but there was a lot of off spacing and sentences would stop to be interrupted by bold font and then sometimes they resumed and sometimes they didn't. the format was not conducive to easy reading

I ind the idea of this book quite interesting as it explains us how come some expressions about animals. It is great if you want to lern interesting facts about animal expressions. The formatting is great and easy to read but the graphics were not really well visible, which I hope will be of better resolution on paper.

I was very disappointed by this book.
The formatting was all over the place, which made it very hard to read, which diminishes the enjoyment. The blurb seemed to promise a comprehensive telling of fables and legends with animals at their core. I did not find this to be the case. This book should not have been available on Kindle, since the illustrations never show up well on a Kindle-type device.
I have to say, rarely have I been disappointed and dismayed by a book, but this one is among them.

It's nice to have one resource to reference animal lore and legend. I found Binney's text comprehensive and inclusive to all things that fall under this category.

Animal Lore and Legend by Ruth Binney

Filled with folklore and other tidbits about animals this book covered a lot of ground with snippets that included beliefs about animals and how people perceive them. There was some mention of animals in the Bible as well. The first section of the book deals with animals ways, folklore, beliefs, religion, and some ethnic variations on how specific animals are perceived. The second section dealt with love, luck, more folklore, history, dreams and animals in astrological signs. The book ended with animals as gods,
spirits and monsters. The book is mostly words but does have a few black and white simple illustrations. I believe this is a simple book that could have had more detail but perhaps is geared toward children rather than adults.

Thank you to Net Galley and Dover Publications for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

I have to say that I expected more from this author. With a natural sciences degree from Cambridge University, one of the most prestigious universities it the world, Ruth Binney is a very proficient writer. I was looking forward to reading this so much. However, there are quite a few major issues. Firstly, this book tries to do too much at once, and although described in the title as focusing on lore and legends much of the information is presented as fact. Obviously, those two are mutually exclusive, so that is my first problem. There are even errors in the information stated as factually correct.

The second sticking point is the structure; it's barely readable. It's literally all over the place. On the other hand, the cover is vibrant and enticing, but, unless I have the wrong idea, it appears to be aimed mainly towards children. I know that I wouldn't let any of the kids in my family loose with it given the mistakes. This has the potential to be a fantastic book for both adults and children if it were fact-checked and restructured.

Many thanks to Dover Publications for an ARC.

Honestly I was really looking forward to this but I found it disappointing. There were several obvious errors and the information was disorganised and chaotic.
Sorry but I’d re edit this and double check the facts
There are some lovely I,ages though.

Animal Lore and Legend by Ruth Binney is just that. All Legends and false facts. Maybe it could be better if there were some real facts in it. The cover is eye-catching and the illustrations on it are wonderful. But the illustrations inside the book are something else. There was no color, which is important if the intended audience are children. Random beliefs are filled on the pages in every space available. I liked the information on mythical creations and the topic of loch ness monster was interesting as I didn't know about it. The book also includes Chinese years and the animals that symbolize them along with their characteristics. It was an okay book, but not for someone looking for more depth.

A fun book about animal legends and lore. A lot of it wasn't known to me! I love that the author also writes about the animals of the zodiac signs, I've always wondered why they are the animals that they are. The part on healing diseases and how animals are believed to help with that is very amusing. Monsters and spirits are also explained. And even dragons!! A very enjoyable read.

A minor peeve of mine is that some of the text is a little randomly placed on the pages. Usually just a small tidbit or example is placed on the page alongside the main text, and sometimes this little tidbit isn't surrounded by a border and other times it is. A border really makes the page in total easier to read, and the tidbits without border make the page random and busy looking. I also noticed some things are double. For example, the information about Robins in the chapter "Harm them at your peril" was also in the chapter about robins.

An engaging and interested book. I appreciated the content, the illustrations and the style of writing.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Dover Publications and Netgalley for this ARC

I was rather lucky to be approved for this book, so close to the publication date!
What an interesting title! I loved its illustrations, they made you think just as much as the content did. But what was amazing about the content, was that it made you think of circumstances in your own life, where these animals have been present, and what that means.

Well written and so fun to read!

This book needs someone to fact check it for starters. I noticed this early when it presented crocodiles getting their teeth cleaned by birds as a fact but figured that since it was about lore and legends that I would give it some slack as this is a legend. However, when it got to rats, the diseases said to be spread by fleas were just wrong. There are other examples, but I would not give this book to a child because of the incorrect facts. Second, the book is disorganized and boring. The pictures are limited, and it seems to go randomly from one animal to the next. On the plus side, I like the idea of the book and the cover is lovely.