A Guide to Sky Monsters: Thunderbirds, the Jersey Devil, Mothman, and Other Flying Cryptids

by T.S. Mart, Mel Cabre

Overview

When a dark shadow passes overhead, do you stop? Or do you run?

Infamous sky monsters have haunted our imaginations for centuries. The Thunderbird, steeped in Native American folklore, supposedly controls evil by throwing lightning. The Jersey Devil is said to roam the Pine Barrens of South Jersey, terrorizing anyone who crosses its path. And the cryptic warnings of Mothman have worried residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, since the 1960s. In A Guide to Sky Monsters: Thunderbirds, the Jersey Devil, Mothman, and Other Flying Cryptids, authors T. S. Mart and Mel Cabre introduce 20 flying cryptids with legends that span the United States. With 70 hand-drawn illustrations, A Guide to Sky Monsters details our fascination with these creatures and describes both historical evidence found in the fossil record and the specifics of modern-day sightings. By studying the fact, fiction, and pop culture surrounding these notorious beasts, Mart and Cabre help us lean into the question, "What if?"

A Guide to Sky Monsters, perfect for the believer and skeptic alike, addresses the wider truths about flying cryptids and leaves us all to wonder whether that breeze was the wind or a wing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684351244
Publisher:	Red Lightning Books
Publication date:	05/25/2021
Pages:	214
Sales rank:	1,091,815
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

T. S. Mart specializes in writing true-to-life stories, showcasing ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Her short story "Delivering Hope" won first place in a national competition and appeared in a bestselling anthology. With a background in social work, she makes her home in a small Midwestern town, writing to inspire and entertain. After graduating high school in 2014, Mel Cabre fine-tuned her passion for designing creatures, cryptids, and monsters by closely studying the world around her and teaching herself the basics of animal and human anatomy. Constantly being inspired by the uniqueness found in nature keeps Mel's imagination alive. She is newly married to a man who rolls with all of her wacky thought processes and loves cats as much as she does. The mother-daughter team co-own and maintain Cryptid World, where they regularly post content about various cryptids.

Read an Excerpt

Sky monsters. Flying cryptids. Unknown creatures that haunt the heights of our world. Maybe you've never heard of them, or possibly you have and fully understand how these cryptids have crept their way into our culture and stirred up controversy, terrorized communities, impacted national pride, and showed the world how intolerance degrades quality of life.
The Thunderbird, the Jersey Devil, Mothman. These aren't just modern monsters meant to satisfy curious minds looking for answers. From each of these cryptids emerge a legacy so significant that lives have been shaken and belief systems challenged. Their origin and meaning remind us of where we have traveled and where we dare not go again.
Giants in the world of unknown flying creatures, these three have been the subject of multiple books and movies that detail their existence in various genres and from various points of view. They're each unique. We'll discuss how later on, but it's important to note up front that each of these flyers emerged from varying circumstances of the times to satisfy one (or more) of three distinct needs within their local communities.
The need for answers.
The need to cast blame or maintain control.
The need to justify or be right.
These are universal needs everyone experiences from time to time. That is why the stories surrounding sky cryptids are timeless and compelling. By examining how each came into existence—the unanswered questions, the pain associated with loss, the lies and egos that dictated the times—we can better understand ourselves, our belief systems, and our worldview.
Thunderbird depictions vary across cultures and periods of time because people observed different creatures in the sky. While terrifying, a bird or flying reptile of enormous size demanded respect. Early people passed on life and death encounters to teach, remember, and entertain. 
The Thunderbird category is broad and can mean something different depending on history and context. Regardless, each flying creature is a unique species that once existed. While those listed below may not be all-inclusive of the "Thunderbirds" discussed throughout history, we'll cover the most popular.

Pterodactyloidea—Winged Finger
Quetzalcoatlus
This flying/gliding reptile was approximately eighteen feet tall with a wingspan nearing thirty-six feet! Scientist believe it weighed 300 to 550 pounds. His legs and feet were each nearly seven-feet. While it may have primarily stayed on the ground, hollow bones and light-weight wings allowed for it to soar off a cliff and glide. While on the ground, the Quetzalcoatlus could have easily preyed on small dinosaurs, animals, and even humans, assuming they coexisted. There are varying opinions on this topic based upon worldview, which we'll cover in more detail in Part Four.
The Quetzalcoatlus fossil was first discovered and recorded in 1971 by graduate student, Douglas Lawson, in Texas's Big Bend National Park. In 1975, scientists named the reptile after the Aztec god known as Quetzalcoatl, the patron god of the priesthood of learning and knowledge.  Quetzalcoatlus means "feathered serpent." We can't know whether pre-Columbian peoples of North America witnessed the Quetzalcoatlus in action, but a coincidental likeness to the large-winged, five-toed creature appears in some of their pottery and artwork.

Pteranodons
A smaller cousin of the Quetzalcoatlus, the Pteranodon, is also a member of the Pterodactyloidea suborder. It stands near six feet tall and weighs about fifty pounds. Still a good size for a bird.  O. C. Marsh discovered this flying reptile in 1870 in the chalk beds of Kansas and Nebraska and across the great plains of North America. Pteranodon means "toothless wing," but it's speculated the flyers were carnivorous. The chalk beds were once an inland sea, so they likely lived on a diet of fish. In the Chalk beds, paleontologists also found the fearsome-looking skeletons of Mosasaurs that possibly feasted on water-skimming Pteranodons. Much like a scene right out of Jurassic World. On a slightly smaller scale.
In the past, dinosaurs, Mosasaur, and other marine life fossilized alongside Pteranodons in a catastrophic event that buried them together. Is it possible some Pteranodons survived because they could fly away from disaster? Perhaps the flying reptiles fed off the inland sea until it dried up then migrated south. Could this account for the frightful man-eating bird stories told by the Indigenous people of Southwest North America? Would it then be possible that man hunted the flying reptiles to extinction . . . or near extinction?
Reports of modern day Pteranodon sightings have occurred in several states within America and around the world,  but either these sky reptiles kept their distance from humans or humans have been afraid to share their photos and videos. History has proven that sharing the strange and unusual often results in insult.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. What Are Sky Monsters?
2. Who's Who in the American Sky?
3. History and Legends
4. Sky Monster Culture
5. Fact or Fiction?
6. Who's Who in the Sky around the World?
Notes
Sources and Further Reading
Index

What People are Saying About This

Seth Breedlove

A Guide to Sky Monsters by T. S. Mart and Mel Cabre does more than simply recite creepy critter stories. It's an introduction to a world you might not have realized even exists. One just above your head whose inhabitants are giant birds, terrifying demons, and creatures previously thought extinct. What T. S. and Mel do is open our minds to ideas and beasts . . . in a time where every discovery is thought to have been made. They're to be commended as much for inspiring us to seek out answers as they are for weaving together the various strands of these centuries-old mysteries.

Seth Breedlove]]>

A Guide to Sky Monsters by T. S. Mart and Mel Cabre does more than simply recite creepy critter stories. It's an introduction to a world you might not have realized even exists. One just above your head whose inhabitants are giant birds, terrifying demons, and creatures previously thought extinct. What T. S. and Mel do is open our minds to ideas and beasts . . . in a time where every discovery is thought to have been made. They're to be commended as much for inspiring us to seek out answers as they are for weaving together the various strands of these centuries-old mysteries.

Editorial Reviews

After surveying the world of hairy humanoids in their debut book, The Legend of Bigfoot, the motherdaughter team of TS Mart and Mel Cabre next turn their attention skyward for a similar survey of winged things in their A Guide To Sky Monsters. . . . Beyond reviewing these American monsters' familiar origins and their body of lore, the authors dig a good bit deeper to provide cultural context, helping to explain the significance of, say, birds of prodigious size in Native American spiritual beliefs, while quite carefully equivocating on whether real animals gave rise to those beliefs, or if those beliefs primed people to see the animals (or believe they saw them, as the case may be). . . . If there's another Mart and Cabre book of monsters on the shelf soon, I'd welcome it. FIVE STARS

Fortean Times - Caleb Mozzocco

Winged cryptids are a mainstay of forteana, and appear in may guises across the world. This book concentrates initially on American examples, but offers more than just a basic listing and description of various crypto-species.

Magonia Review - Richard Samuels

"Winged cryptids are a mainstay of forteana, and appear in may guises across the world. This book concentrates initially on American examples, but offers more than just a basic listing and description of various crypto-species."—Richard Samuels, Magonia Review

"After surveying the world of hairy humanoids in their debut book, The Legend of Bigfoot, the motherdaughter team of TS Mart and Mel Cabre next turn their attention skyward for a similar survey of winged things in their A Guide To Sky Monsters. . . . Beyond reviewing these American monsters' familiar origins and their body of lore, the authors dig a good bit deeper to provide cultural context, helping to explain the significance of, say, birds of prodigious size in Native American spiritual beliefs, while quite carefully equivocating on whether real animals gave rise to those beliefs, or if those beliefs primed people to see the animals (or believe they saw them, as the case may be). . . . If there's another Mart and Cabre book of monsters on the shelf soon, I'd welcome it. FIVE STARS"—Caleb Mozzocco, Fortean Times

"A Guide to Sky Monsters by T. S. Mart and Mel Cabre does more than simply recite creepy critter stories. It's an introduction to a world you might not have realized even exists. One just above your head whose inhabitants are giant birds, terrifying demons, and creatures previously thought extinct. What T. S. and Mel do is open our minds to ideas and beasts . . . in a time where every discovery is thought to have been made. They're to be commended as much for inspiring us to seek out answers as they are for weaving together the various strands of these centuries-old mysteries."—Seth Breedlove, Small Town Media

From the Publisher