An extremely random and little-known fact about me is that I am obsessed with Nessie (formally known as the Loch Ness monster, but that feels a bit too technical for my taste) (formally known as the Loch Ness monster, but that feels a bit too technical for my taste). At school, my friends and I were doing a group project in Spanish about Nessie. I can't tell you why Nessie was a good theme for a Spanish project or how we came up with it, but here we are. We spent a lot of time on the internet in the late '00s, looking at videos of alleged sightings, articles with questionable credibility, and random documentary clips that had been put on YouTube. I didn't care how good the research was, though. I was hooked. Nessie and cryptozoology are still very interesting to me, even though I don't spend as much time looking for them these days. I still get a lot of excitement when they come up.

Let’s define cryptozoology, for starters. It's a subculture and pseudoscience that tries to prove the existence of cryptids, which are creatures that are thought to be real based on stories or myths. Other than my favorite cryptid, Bigfoot, the Yeti, the chupacabra, and more are all things that are called cryptids. Also, the definition doesn't include mythical creatures and spiritual or supernatural beings like unicorns or pegasus, for example. I grew up hearing Japanese folk stories about ykai, which are mythical creatures and spiritual or supernatural beings. Cryptozoology is a new field, but it has roots that can be traced back to the 1940s and '50s. It was started by Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson, two zoologists who were interested in unknown animals. Both wrote a lot about cryptozoology. Heuvelmans's book On the Track of Unknown Animals is thought to be one of the most important texts in the field. If you look at the study itself, it doesn't use the scientific method or folklore studies (a branch of anthropology). Instead, it is linked to other pseudosciences like ufology or ghost hunting.

Here are some books about or about cryptids and cryptozoology to help you satisfy your desire to look into the unknown. Who hasn't watched a "Bigfoot" show on the History Channel? This list isn't complete, but it does try to show how many different kinds of books there are out there, from fiction to nonfiction, and for people of all ages.

Nonfiction Books About Cryptids

Cryptozoology A to Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark

Loren Coleman is a well-known American cryptozoologist who has written many books about the subject and even built a museum in Portland, Maine, called the International Cryptozoology Museum. This encyclopedia, which was written with Jerome Clark, a writer who likes to write about the mysteries of the universe, gives an overview of cryptids, animals that haven't been found yet, and the people who study them.

In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of Sasquatch by John Zada

On the central and north coast of British Columbia, there is a rainforest called the Great Bear Rainforest. It is the world's largest temperate rainforest, and it has a rich and diverse ecosystem. People in the area believe that the Sasquatch also lives there. There are a lot of different kinds of animals and plants there. Bigfoot is what rekindled John Zada's childhood fascination. He talks to people from the area who all have their own stories and experiences to tell. But what he finds is more complicated than just looking for an unknown creature. He looks into science, human perception, and more as a result of his work.

Cryptid Creatures: A Field Guide by Kelly Milner Halls and Rick Spears

This illustrated guide is aimed at kids in middle school. It has information on 50 cryptids for people to think about. Each entry has eyewitness accounts or other possible evidence for the creatures, which is sure to pique the interest of young people who want to be scientists.

Behind the Legend: The Loch Ness Monster by Erin Peabody and Victor Rivas

Here's a book series for young people, but this time it's broken down into deeper dives into one animal at a time. In each book in the Behind the Legend series, we look at a different creature or monster from history through a scientific lens and think about whether or not they could be real based on accounts of sightings and other evidence. Nessie and Bigfoot are two of the subjects of this book series, which also talks about mythical creatures that aren't just cryptids.

Fiction Books About Cryptids

Dear Yeti by James Kwan

This picture book is sweet and heartwarming. It tells the story of two young hikers who go into the woods in search of a Yeti. Yeti is afraid and doesn't want to show himself, so they write letters to him to try to get him to come out of the woods. During the hike, a snowstorm is coming, and the hikers aren't ready. Yeti, on the other hand, proves to be a good friend and comes up with a way to help the hikers while still being hidden.

The Cryptid Files series by Jean Flitcroft

Vanessa is a young girl who has just lost her mother. This middle-grade trilogy is about how Vanessa is dealing with it. When Vanessa's mother was a cryptozoologist, she tried to find proof that certain cryptids were real. She wants to keep doing the research she did to try to do the same thing. In the first book, Vanessa gets to go on a family trip to Scotland and see Loch Ness, so she can learn more about it. In the second book, Vanessa goes to Mexico to visit her friend's ranch and learn about the Chupacabra. In the last part, Vanessa goes to a remote island off the coast of Canada. She meets mysterious sea serpents there.

Dakwäkãda Warriors by Cole Pauls

Ts'ür'i and Aghay are protectors who use language revitalization to save the Earth from bad settlers and cyborg sasquatches in this fun YA comic book about colonialism. Cole Pauls is an artist from the Tahltan First Nation. He wrote this comic in English and Southern Tutchone to help keep the ancestral language alive.

City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende

His parents have to go away for his mother's cancer treatment, so Alexander Cold is sent to stay with his eccentric grandmother, Kate, in New York while his parents are away. Kate is a reporter for a magazine. She takes Alex on a trip to the Amazon to look for a cryptid called the Beast. This is the first book in a young adult trilogy about Alex and Nadia's adventures tagging Kate as she tells amazing stories from all over the world. They go on a lot of trips with Kate.

Wild Life by Molly Gloss

Charlotte Bridger Drummond is an independent, adventurous, and freethinking mother of five sons who made a living writing women's adventure stories in the early 1900s. She did this to make money. On one day, a little girl gets lost in the woods, and Charlotte decides to help look for her. She ends up getting lost herself, and she comes face-to-face with a group of Sasquatch. This book is written as Charlotte's diary entries. It talks about what the real differences are between wilderness and civilization.

Devolution by Max Brooks

This book is about a reporter who looks into a bloody massacre that happened in a small, isolated community in Washington. Following an eruption of Mount Rainier, sasquatches came out to show not only that they were there in the first place, but also that they were terrifying and savage. The narrator shows the journal entries of a resident of the town, Kate Holland, as well as his own research and interviews with experts, to build an account of the incident.

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