Fearsome Creatures of Florida
They sinuate through ficus hedges and tunnel under beach towels. They lurk in mangroves and springs. Some you can smell a mile away. Others you don’t notice until they grab at your ankles. They’re known as Storm Devils and Peat Fairies, Skunk Apes and Were-Panthers, and they’re the wildly imaginative bestiary that populates John Henry Fleming’s FEARSOME CREATURES OF FLORIDA. Fleming offers an eerie portrayal of the parallel lives of modern-day Floridians and the living landscape — at once gorgeous and menacing — that surrounds them. Matched with haunting illustrations by David Hazouri, these tales may forever change your view of the Sunshine State.
Illustrations by David Hazouri
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
At least 20% of the royalties from the sale of Fearsome Creatures of Florida and 50% of the profits from associated products will be donated to the Nature Conservancy to help protect critical natural lands in Florida. If you’d like to donate to the Nature Conservancy, please follow the link below! You can direct your gift to Florida or to anywhere else it’s needed.
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This Week's Dedication
Fearsome Creatures of Florida
They sinuate through ficus hedges and tunnel under beach towels. They lurk in mangroves and springs. Some you can smell a mile away. Others you don't notice until they grab at your ankles. They're known as Storm Devils and Peat Fairies, Skunk Apes and Were-Panthers, and they're the wildly imaginative bestiary that populates John Henry Fleming's FEARSOME CREATURES OF FLORIDA. Fleming offers an eerie portrayal of the parallel lives of modern-day Floridians and the living landscape -- at once gorgeous and menacing -- that surrounds them. Matched with haunting illustrations by David Hazouri, these tales may forever change your view of the Sunshine State.
Illustrations by David Hazouri
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
At least 20% of the royalties from the sale of Fearsome Creatures of Florida and 50% of the profits from associated products will be donated to the Nature Conservancy to help protect critical natural lands in Florida. If you'd like to donate to the Nature Conservancy, please follow the link below! You can direct your gift to Florida or to anywhere else it's needed.
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Praise
John Henry Fleming’s Fearsome Creatures of Florida is required reading for anyone who lives in Florida, has ever lived there, has relatives who live in Florida, ever went to Florida on vacation, has ever flown over Florida on route to somewhere else, has ever dreamed about Florida, ever even once had a fleeting thought about Florida, ever heard Delius’s Florida Suite, or ever read Charles Willeford or John D. MacDonald. Much ingenuity, much wit, much verbal magic -- this book is sheer pleasure. — Peter Straub This book breathes new life into real creatures and popular myths like the Skunk Ape and the Chupacabra. However, the beasts that stay with readers long after finishing the book are Fleming’s creations, like the ghost of the monkeynaut, Gordo, trouncing along the Space Coast in his shiny suit.... Like Where the Wild Things Are, Fearsome Creatures reminds us why we obsessed over monsters as children. This book is required reading for any eco-conscious Floridian. It should be shelved between stiff wildlife handbooks for your children to discover when they’re old enough to explore the truth between the facts. — Creative Loafing An environmentalist’s heart beats behind these stories, but instead of lectures Fleming artfully draws us into the kind of campfire tales we almost believe. — St. Petersburg Times The book is hilarious and strange and a funny satire of, well, many things. Books about wildlife. Contemporary books and television shows about the paranormal and the inexplicable.... Read closely and you’ll see that Fleming addresses various issues affecting Florida—environmental degradation, poor conditions for grove workers—through his satiric shorts. — Tampa Tribune ...a bestiary in the fullest sense of the word. [Fleming] wants us to see Florida as the snarled, fraught place it is, not the endless vacation it’s made out to be. — The Florida Book Review