With the rising popularity of UFO conspiracies and alien abductions, good books on low profile subjects such as cryptozoology have become scarce. Many people have relied on standards such as On the Track of Unknown Animals to explore the fringes of fauna, but Karl P.N. Shuker's From Flying Toads to Snakes with Wings is a more budget-conscious option. An accomplished zoologist, Shuker bypasses the hype found in the tabloids and leaves cryptozoological celebrities such as Big Foot and the Loch Ness monster behind; he concentrates only on the rarest of the rare. Shuker also provides a revealing glimpse at the detective work involved in deciphering the identities of creatures whose existences refuse to be denied, but who have been proclaimed extinct or relegated to myth and folklore. He constructs a formidable argument for the existence of new animal oddities not yet recognized by science, even in the late 20th century, and cites important discoveries from the 1990s. From Flying Toads to Snakes with Wings is sure to pique the curiosity of anyone interested in exotic specimens from the animal kingdom, and doesn't require a major financial investment or a degree in zoology.