Strange but True: 10 of the world's greatest mysteries explained

If you have a kid around 9-13 that is interested in the macabre or unexplained this is a great book for them. It does a really good job giving all the details into lots of popular modern myths and legends. The illustrations fit the tone well as well.

I loved both the concept and the execution of this book. It's a fascinating and very well presented look at various strange phenomena - alien abductions, ghosts, zombies, monsters of various kinds, the lost city of Atlantis, telepathy and telekinesis (Uri Geller included - remember him?), and so on, over ten chapters. The evidence for and against is presented and analysed in an interesting, straightforward and kid-friendly way, encouraging readers to use a scientific approach, with the delightful illustrations adding a great deal of value.

These apparently unexplainable (or are they?) mysteries exert an enduring fascination for both children and adults, and the book would make a great addition to many libraries and home bookshelves, encouraging a balanced, questioning and critical approach. I'll definitely be sharing it with my daughter.

Strange but True is a great and educational book which proposes possible solutions to several fascinating unsolved mysteries. I absolutely love the gorgeous full-colour artwork and all the interesting facts.

This is such a unique and pretty read! Writer Kathryn Hulick and artist Gordy Wright take you on a tour of some of the world’s most popular and enduring mysteries. The strange phenomena include zombies, haunted houses, aliens, the lost city of Atlantis and sea monsters like the Kraken. The book encourages readers to use science and critical thinking to figure out possible explanations for unusual phenomena. For instance, cases of alien abduction may be caused by sleep paralysis or false memories while frolicking otters and logs can explain sightings of lake monsters.

The book is filled with easy-to-read and fascinating information. Each short chapter is broken up into helpfully labelled subsections. I also like that Hulick sums up the most important points in brief sentences next to the paragraphs. This is a great primer to introduce young readers to these interesting mysteries. However, I wish that certain chapters gave a little more specific information on the stories. I also wish that some of the information was a bit better organized.

This book is so gorgeously put together! I love the cool fonts and how perfectly the illustrations are integrated into the page layout. Wright’s haunting artwork is gorgeous and eye-catching. I would purchase this book just for the softly coloured and detailed artwork!

Strange but True is a well-designed and entertaining read with beautiful illustrations. This book will be perfect for curious middle-grade readers who like mysteries and science. However, it will also be a great addition to any adult’s library because of the lovely artwork and interesting stories.



👽👽👽👽 aliens out of 5!

This book was actually pretty damn fun, fascinating, and perfect for an inquisitive younger reader. 🏫

It is broken up into the following ten stories...

-- AN ENCOUNTER WITH ALIENS 👽
-- THE HAUNTED MANSION (my fave) 👻
-- THE SEARCH FOR LOST WORLDS 🏰
-- THE STAR OF DEEP BEGINNING 🌟
-- WHEN THE DEAD RETURN 💃
-- AMAZING POWERS OF THE MIND 👵
-- THE SECRETS OF AN ANCIENT TOMB 🏯
-- LOST AT SEA 🚢
-- THE MYSTERY OF DEAD MOUNT AIN 💀
-- MONSTERS OF THE DEEP 🌊

It is visually a pleasure to look through with colorful graphics and interesting fonts. 🎨 Each story (from around the world) has a summary of events, facts, history, and what really may have been at play. 🌌 The stories are short and easy to read and not bogged down with details that would make a young reader's interest wane. 👍 I can see this book being perfect for any elementary school-aged child who loves mysterious stories and science. 🎒

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley!

My two kids and I LOVED this book. I'm a sucker for mysteries and strange crap msyelf... but this was brilliant for young readers!

I noticed that this book is for 10 to 13 year-old children, but as an adult, I honestly love reading books like this too. Besides all the interesting tales, another reason to enjoy this is that the author added some possible scientific explanations for the situations covered in the book, but not everything can be explained away that well. It still leaves the reader with a sense of the mysterious, that while there appears to be many reasonable explanations, there might very well be other dimensions than what most of us believe or see with our own eyes; I think that’s why stories like this continue to fascinate us.

The illustrations in this book add an extra layer of spookiness to many of the stories, and I loved that they were added. I give this book 5 stars for how well it was written.

3.75 stars.

Here it is, right up front: It's a great book to expose kids to. They, imaginative and impressionable as we know them to be, get easily caught up in the sensational side of odd phenomena throughout the world, right? Hulick's book helps to orient their thinking toward a more methodical, sensible direction, prompting them to ask the right questions when these stories pop up.

To assuage any fears, the point of this book isn't to poo-poo on anyone who believes in UFOs, ghosts, etc. but to simply take the facts as they are. Hulick states within that these instances are fun to think upon, that they're interesting and captivating in their abilities to not be fully explained, and that *that* is the key to all of this. Are ghosts real? Maybe, maybe not--but just take a look at what we do know. Lots of kids could use this reassurance, to be told that there's more than just a stuffy, rigid response from academia; that science and folklore can share a common ground, should things line up.

Hulick stokes the imagination, prepares the mind to better receive material a little on the weird side, and probably will even save some kids from a few sleepless nights.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Quarto Publishing Group, and Frances Lincoln Children's Books for the advance read.

This book is a fascinating learning tool. Scientific facts and mesmerizing photographs. It is broken up into the following ten stories...AN ENCOUNTER WITH ALIENS .THE HAUNTED MANSION,THE SEARCH FOR LOST WORLDS, THE STAR OF DEEP BEGINNING,WHEN THE DEAD RETURN ,AMAZING POWERS OF THE MIND , THE SECRETS OF AN ANCIENT TOMB , LOST AT SEA , THE MYSTERY OF DEAD MOUNTAIN , MONSTERS OF THE DEEP . All highly informational and enjoyed by the grandparents, parents and grandchildren in this household.

This book gets straight to my X-Files-loving heart! I love anything to do with the unexplained, strange phenomena etc. – but I'm also a massive sceptic, so this book is perfect for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It explores the fascination and intrigue of the unexplained, while also explaining what a more logical, prosaic explanation could be. Particularly important for aspiring young investigators are the explanations of why it's important to find proper evidence for things, and the encouragement to see how wonderful and magical the world is even without aliens and monsters. Also the artwork is lovely – it somehow manages to be magical and spooky at the same time. A great Halloween gift for any small and curious person in your life.

From Bigfoot to hauntings via Atlantis and alien abductions, this book aims to give possible explanations for some of life's biggest mysteries.

What a great book for any kids interested in this kind of subject! The illustrations are wonderful and the information is matter of fact without talking down to the reader. I love that the book never claims to have absolutely all the answers, it just says 'here's a possible explanation for this occurrence'. It's very cleverly done.

A fantastic read.

Discover the truth behind some of the world's greatest unexplained mysteries using the power of science and critical thinking to expose aliens and sea monsters, haunted houses and lost cities for what they really are. Accompanied with hauntingly, beautiful illustrations, Strange but True, is a must read this Halloween!

I enjoyed this as an adult and would have loved it as a kid. I think I watched every single episode of Unsolved Mysteries, so I was interested in this as soon as I saw the title. It lived up to my hopes. I enjoyed the artwork.

This was a cute piece of nonfiction for children discussing topics such as Atlantis and alien abductions. I think it would be a really great read for those reluctant readers in later elementary school and early middle school.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

Although too young for my daughter, I really enjoyed this book. I am a fan on conspiracy theories and legends so naturally I'd enjoy this book.

This was a very good book indeed, carefully and scientifically debunking a lot of the common stories of the unexplained for the under-twelves. We start with alien visitation and UFOs, then go through ghosts and hauntings and Atlantis, delve into darkness with potential zonbis, before progressing in very intelligent ways around the Fortean world – and ours, as we zigzag from Nazca lines to the Bermuda Triangle to the curse on Carter in the Valley of the Kings. Good design and illustration mean we speed through the pages, but the level of learning is great here, the subject is bound to appeal – and any person of any age deserves to have a corrective to the von Danikens and Gellers of this world. There's so very little wrong with this, and I know of no other, similar book, so it gets five rational stars.

I was given a copy of this book free from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

I've never read anything so satisfying, as this book that teaches us to think critically when faced with the unknown. I loved the call backs to the scientific method and the mix of old and new oddities.

The only thing that took enjoyment from the book was the format. It is not an easy read on a kindle, but I'm betting that the physical copy is lovely and would make a great gift for curious children.