An Odd Bestiary

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"There were people who ventured out and glimpsed what life was like beyond the stone walls surrounding the medieval community, and when those travelers returned home they brought word of an earth so large, so full of splendor, so remote from the experience of those at home, that their tales altered people's dreams."
Laurie Block,
from the introduction to The Odd Beastiary compiled and illustrated by Alan James Robinson.

This is my happy thrift store find today. 
 
I love that the descriptions sound like something Edward Gorey might have dreamed up, particularly with the sloth which reads:" His looks, his gestures and his cries all conspire to entreat you to take pity on him"  - Charles Waterson