Title Le livre secret des Elfes Series --- Author Katherine Quénot Illustrator Civiello Publisher Glenat - 2013 First Printing Glenat - 2013 Category Reference Warnings --- Main Characters N/A Main Elements Elves

À la découverte d’un peuple magique et féerique Si les Elfes sont les produits de l’imagination humaine, alors les humains sont les produits de l’imagination elfique. Car ils rêvent de nous comme nous rêvons d’eux. Pures énergies, ils nous apparaissent brillants et merveilleux. Incarnés et doués d’individualité, nous leur semblons divins. Ils aimeraient tant être des humains… Est-ce là le secret de notre fascination pour eux ? Tout le monde a déjà entendu parler des Elfes, mais peu les connaissent vraiment. Car savez-vous par exemple qu’il en existe plusieurs catégories ? Connaissez-vous l’étendue de leurs pouvoirs ? Ou comment entrer en contact avec eux ? Avec force détails et exhaustivité, Katherine Quenot nous propose dans ce très bel ouvrage illustré par Civiello d’en savoir plus sur ces petites créatures merveilleuses qui peuplent notre imaginaire, mais pas que…

I found this book a little odd.

First the text, it starts off trying to give a kind of science-y explanation of elves and how they are made of energy and can sometimes take corporeal form because matter and energy are interchangeable...know what, I think I was ok with just calling them "magic".

Then it got into a lot of spirituality and religion stuff, and included chants and spells to summon them. I thought that too was kind of odd. I'm also not sure where the line was drawn between an elf and a fairy. I've always thought of elves of the scandanavian/germanic variety, though Britain had them too due to Viking invasions. And faeries were more Celtic, but I have a feeling, while there were some individual references, they just got smooshed together here.

The artwork was also a little too anatomically correct if you get what I mean? It's a kids book but plenty of nudity. Now I'm not trying to be a prude but at the same time, they can also be represented more genderless. And toss in the fact that many fae appear as children, I dunno, it just didn't work for me, though it otherwise had quality artwork.

I can't say I have a better book to recommend, for what its worth I found it hard to find any non-fiction books on faeries, elves and their kin but there have got to be better ones out there.