This is a cleverly disguised book that teaches a lot of science to a wide audience. The author uses classic monster examples to cover a wide and fascinating range of real science, mostly relating to anatomy and biology. Kids will pick this book up for fun and the yuck factor and end up learning a lot of facts they certainly did not expect.

The book is very divided into topics by monster. The monsters included are Frankenstein, Vampires, Bigfoot, Zombies, Werewolves, and Sea Monsters. If we look at the first section on Frankenstien, the book touches on, the original Mary Shelley story, other lonely monsters in literature and whether loneliness could create monsters, 18th century anatomy experiments involving electricity, the work of Luigi Galvani and Volta, mad scientists throughout history and in literature, cardiac arrest and defibrillation, neurons and the nervous system, organ transplants, grave robbing, and genetic engineering. Each monster topic covers a wide variety of facts and related information with page after page of interesting facts, wonderfully exaggerated illustrations, and related scientific digressions. "Vampires" focuses on blood and circulation; "Bigfoot" on evolution and rare animals; "Zombies" on exotic diseases, and more

This is an amazing book to peak the interest in so many topics with the yucky and gross appeal of monsters, blood and guts. I think middle-grade children will love this book and it will open a lot of doors to science and discovery. This is a wonderful book that would be a hit in elementary school libraries.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

This book takes simple facts of life and applies them to the supposed biology of mythical monsters in order to establish if they could exist. It also fights facts with fiction and shows how science disproves the existence of monsters. It gives background information on the science used in creating monsters like Frankenstein as well as cultural facts.

This was so entertaining. I loved the science facts! It goes over electricity, viruses, cryptid biology, and so on. It hits most of the bases kids would be learning but in an easy to understand way. There are plenty of pictures of blood cells, DNA strands, charts of animals and timelines, and even fun little tidbits like "Build Your Own Monster." There is a quiz at the end of each chapter to test how the reader understood the information. ( )

This book uses scientific facts to explain how monsters were created and how people could truly believe in and fear them. It also debunks monsters with science. For example, bacteria spreading diseases explain how zombies can contaminate each other. Hypothermia and cholera can make people look like zombies. But "if a zombie did walk the earth, it would slowly decompose into goo." Other monsters explained and debunked are: Frankenstein, vampires, bigfoot, werewolves and seamonsters. Each chapter ends with a quiz. The book is at times ironically funny. In the Frankenstein section, it talks about grave robbers. They dug up recently deceased bodies to sell to doctors and scientists. One grave robber was caught, hung and then his body was publicly dissected. Future doctors and scientists will love this book. It would be fun to have in a middle school Science classroom library. ( )

This book was fantastic! Each chapter is dedicated to a different well known monster: Frankenstein, Vampire, Bigfoot, Zombie, Werewolf and Sea Monster, and for each of them the science, and also historic and cultural backgrounds, are analyzed in order to try to figure out if their existence could be possible.
As an example, in Frankenstein's chapter (which is also my favorite) the reader will find the story of when Mary Shelly wrote the first draft of the novel, the Enlightenment as the background, what is electricity and if it really can wake the dead, neurons, organ transplantation, genetic engineering, monsters as lonely creatures, mad scientists, body snatchers, and more.

Going through all the six chapters you will read about an incredibly amount of topics such as blood diseases, scientific revolution, metamorphosis, hypnosis, species classification, evolution, plagues, hybrids, Sonar, Tsunamis, and an endless etc.

The text is accessible for the age range, and the book is thoroughly illustrated with funny pictures, not scary at all. Most of the kids are interested, or at least curious, about monsters, and Monster Science is a great option to stimulate their interest in science.

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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