^{Joel Sartore}

For the past 40 years, Paul Johnsgard has usually had at least three books in the works at a given time. Some of his books are technical surveys of groups such as owls, hummingbirds, and stifftail ducks. Others, like Those of the Gray Wind, are personal accounts of the landscape, history, and animals of Nebraska. Click here for more information.

Then there’s Dragons and Unicorns: A Natural History, a quirky little book he wrote and illustrated with his daughter, Karin, just before she went to college. With a full scholarship waiting for her, Karin’s summer plans didn’t include anything more productive than playing Dungeons & Dragons. That didn’t sit well with Dad. And when Johnsgard looked at the reference materials that came with the game, he realized that something was amiss.

“Most mythological animals are biologically impossible,” he says. For instance, dragons are usually depicted as having forelegs and wings. He and Karin decided that if dragons and unicorns did exist, the details of their habits and anatomy would have to be consistent with what’s known about other real animals. The Johnsgards also slipped in a little political commentary about such things as the folly of going into battle against a dragon with nothing but a flag for armor. With all that, the book retains its whimsical nature, for, according to the book’s introduction, “to doubt the existence of dragons and unicorns is surely the hallmark of a limited imagination and a closed mind.”

Click here to read an excerpt.

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