IN THİS PİCTURE BOOK WE SEE FANTASTİCAL FİGURES. MYTHOLOGİCAL CREATURES OF ALL SHAPES, SİZES AND ORİGİNS COME TO LİFE İN A POETRY COLLECTİON.

FLAMES BURN; WAVES OF WATER CHURN; LARGE WİNGS BEAT. EVERY BEAST İS FİLLED WİTH STRENGTH AND ENERGY.

MANY GRAND BEASTS ARE İNDEED FEARFUL, BUT THERE ARE COMİC POEMS TO ADD A SENSE OF RELİEF.

ERİC CARLE'S MAGİCAL DRAWİNGS TAKE THE CHİLDREN TO A NEW WORLD FİLLED WİTH DRAGONS, UNİCORNS, AND ALL KİNDS OF FANTASTİC CREATURES, THE WORLD OF A CHİLD'S İMAGİNATİON. AND ONLY ERİC CARLE CAN DO İT.

WHAT A FABULOUS WAY TO İNTRODUCE CHİLDREN TO CLASSİC AND MODERN POETRY.

DRAGONTHE WRİTER WİSHES THİS DRAGON TO TELL SOMETHİNG JOYFUL AND HOPEFUL. İT İS VERY BİG; SYMBOL OF POWER.IT HAS GOT FOUR LEGS; SYMBOL OF MİSERY.

Western dragons are fierce, powerful, wise and misery. The flames are destructive.

Oriental dragons are fierce, powerful, wise and rich, but also quite benevolent.

The Myth: Middle Eastren _ Arabic bird from the Sinbad tales and the tales of Marco Polo. This gigantic bird of prey had such prodigious strenth, it transported elephants in its talons to feed its nesting young . The story says the eggs are as large as the dome of a mosque. ROE:Roe has behold the sun. We cannot see the sun. The air is now dark and boring. It is too big. The poet hinks that a cloud covers the sun. But it is not a cloud, it is an enourmous bird, Roe. It has very huge wings and covers a very big surface. It carries elephants to its babies. You know elephants are one of the biggest animals in the World. Now imagine how Roe can carry an elephant in its talons.

a mosque

The Myth :

• The Asian _ the Himalayan abominable snowman, an apelike creature from the highes reaches of the mountains. It supposedly walks upright like a human and the Sherpas of Nepal report many sightings. The Yeti is pictured in Tibetian scrolls and manuscripts.

YETI Yeti is like a man but it is not a man. It is a beast. We are lucky it doesn’t exist. It walks like a man and has hair on his face. But people talk that somewhere in the World, where man cannot go, maybe in some forests, or in caves, or in the high and snowy parts of Himalayas he may be living. Nobody knows if it is true or not. If you meet him and ask whether he is YETI or not, he will only answer MAYBE. We cannot be sure if he exists or not.

The Myth : Greek- a half bull, half man who

was imprisoned an a certain labyrinth built by Daedalus, the

arhitect. Minos, king of young men and women from Athens to feed

this monster. It was finally slain in the labyrinth by the Athenian hero

Theseus. MINOTAUR Minotaur is half bull and half man. All the people are afraid

of him. It eats greedily 14 kids a year. It lives in a maze, you cannot find the way easily, it is complex. You cannot escape from it. But Theseus the Greek hero killed him with his sword shouting “OLES”.

BASILISKIT HAS THE HEAD AND THE BODY OF A COCK. IT İS SO STRONG THAT İT CAN CRACK A ROCH BY İTS BREATH. ITS WİNGS ARE LEATHER. IT HAS THE TAİL OF A SNAKE. IT HİSSES LİKE A SNAKE.

THE MYTH: BASİLİSK: EUROPEAN-ALSO CALLED COCKATRİCE. CONSİDERED THE KİNG OF SERPENTS, İTS FİERY BREATH COULD BURST STONE AD İTS EVİL GLANCE COULD KİLL. IT COULD BE DESTROYED BY FORCİNG İT TO LOOK AT İTS OWN REFLECTİON. THE BASİLİSK WAS SAİD TO BE BORN FROM A ROOSTER’S EGG, HATCHED BY A TOAD.

The Myth : Biblical – the monstrous sea creature from the Book of Job in the Old Testament.

Leviathan Leviathan makes the deep of

the sea boil like a pot. Sea is moving like mixing ointment in a bowl. And his trail behind him is shinning. It is so effective that the river looks like white hair when compared with it. And it is unique, nothing like it on the Earth.

The Myth : European , North American a serphent with a head at each end of its body. It could loop itself and roll like a hoop by

putting one head into the jaws of other. Some say it appeared in Massachusetts in

the colony’s early days.

AmphisbaenaIt has two heads. Nobody has seen a creature like it. It can

sleep with one head and wake with the other one, or it can play with one and rest with the other. We cannot know which

head it is using. It is confusing. We cannot decide which direction it is looking, or it is going.

It can do two activities at the same time. How difficult it is for us to do it. We are amazed.

The Myth : American Indian - the mythic white buffalo who came in the guise of a young woman to the Lakota Sioux tribe to teach and guide the people in times of trouble.

The white buffalo woman comes to teach the people the songs and prayers of the five ceremonies. It is wearing white dress. She looks serious and wise.The woman disappears and there is a buffalo. It is running .

The Myth : North –American Indian heroine a crow of a Lenape tribe myth. To save the animals from winter, it flew to the Great Spirit in the sky and brought back the gift of fire. Ever since then, the multicoloured feathers of rainbow crow have been covered with soot , and his beautiful voice has been hoarse from the ashes he swallowed while carriying the flaming stick in his beak.

The rainbow crow has colourful feathers like rainbow. It flies and carries flaming stick to protect animals from winter. Because of the flames its beak is covered with soot. His voice is harsh because it swallows ashes

The Myth : Egyptian , Middle Eastern, Asian – a mythical bird. It lived to a

greeat age reported to be from 500 to 7000 years. At the end of its life, it burnt

itself in a nest of flames and was born again. Rising from its own ashes. İt is a

symbol of immortality.

The Phoenix is the fire bird. It lives for long. It burns itself at the end and then is born again from its own ashes. So it is a symbol of immortality. It everlasts.

The Myth : European and Middle Eastern – a composite creature with the body of lion, a head of an eagle, and large, pointed ears that allow the griffin tohear exceptionally well. A dangerous foe, it guards treasure and gold and is a hater of horses. It lays jewels instead of eggs in a cliff-top nest.

It protects Pharaohs and defends the kings. It waches their wealth, jewellery. It has wings like an eagle and clawns like a lion. It can hear every whisper and thus knows everything. It the enemy of law breakers. You may believe it or not.

The Myth : European and Middle Eastern- the offspring of a horse and a griffin. It lives in a mountanious and when not in the air, grazes on grasses.

It appears in the poetry of Virgil and is a symbol of poetic inspiration.

Hippogriff is the offspring of a mare and a griffin. It has a curious fate. It has hooves and nails like a horse, and clows and nail like an eagle. It likes to gazzle on the grass and can fly up in the air. When people see it they are enslaved by it.

The Myth: European Assian – a magical horse with a twisted horn growing from its forehead and the beard of a goat. First described in Pliny as a ferocious beast with the feet of elephant, it has evolved through the ages into more benovelent and appealing creature. The medieval version pictures it as a pure white horse of great strength and beauty which can be captured only by an innocent young maiden.

UNICORNThere is no animal like it. Nobody has seen it. But people like it. It is a symbol of strenth and beauty. It looks calmly with clear eyes.

The Myth : Greek- the god of woodland and meadow shepherds and flocks. Pan was musical and invented the shepherd’s pipe . Pan is sometimes used as a symbol of the universe and natural world.

The PanPan is the symbol of natural

world. When Pan is passing by the river the nature is happy and becomes lively. The sun forgets to set down, the lilies revive.

The myth: Japanese – a water-dwelling trickster the size of a boy. The Kappa is said to have spiky hair surrounding a saucer –shaped depression in its head which holds

water and is the source of its considerable strength . A lower wrestling and cucumbers. İt gives off a fishy smell. People in lakes and rivers need to watch out

for Kappa as it will maliciously drag them under.Kappa It has a saucer (the water in it

keeps him alive) on his head, and a carapace (something like turtle shell) on his back. It is like a naughty child, makes tricks. You should watch out, when you are asleep he can steal anything from you under water. But on the land he is not strong, because when the saucer begins to dry he rushes to water to keep his cucumber-carapace fresh. He needs water.