As the title implies, the topic is lost worlds, so we get hidden dinosaur valleys and Atlantis. We also get giant monster movies like Harryhausen’s black and white creature flicks, King Kong (I suppose Skull Island is a bit of a lost world) and a selection of Kaiju. Seymour, at least earlier in the book, is quick to chart the fictional sources for the films he covers, including lengthy quotes from stuff like Burroughs’ Pellucidar novels.

Again, though, while this is clearly written for children, there are some curious inclusions, like Horrors of Spider Island (1960), an exploitation horror film that was also released under the title It’s Hot in Paradise. In it, a club manager and the dancers he hired survive a plane crash near the titular island. A spider bites the manager, turning him into a violent (and gross-looking) mutant who eventually dies by sinking into quicksand. It’s mostly an excuse to have wet, scantily clad women running around a jungle set and, well, not really for kids! But also, maybe not not for kids, too.

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This is honestly a pretty solid overview of science fiction monsters through the mid-’70s, even aimed as it is at kids. It’s got serials, TV shows like Star Trek, Lost in Space and The Outer Limits, an informative aside on the pulp origins of science fiction, all the major schlocky ’50s flicks and some more serious fare as well like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Quatermas films and Day of the Triffids, which all push up against horror in a way that I’m slightly surprised to see them in a young readers book like this. I don’t know what grade level this is written for, but I probably wouldn’t let my kid watch the Hammer Quatermas and the Pit until after it, if that makes sense.

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