Villainology: Fabulous Lives of the Big, the Bad, and the Wicked.

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

The author/illustrator duo that brought Monsterology to middle school readers returns with another 15 entries, this time about dastardly bad guys and gals, both real and made up. Following an opening police lineup of 14 of the book’s villains in silhouette, illustrator Mah introduces each six-page chapter with a most imaginative full-page black and white rendition of the evildoer.

Slade’s tongue-in-cheek text parodies the style and content of teen fanzines that purportedly provide the real scoop about contemporary pop icons. Consequently, Slade provides his often humourous information about these rogues under numerous headings like “Loves,” “Hates,” “Fashion rating,” “Hairstyle,” “High School Memories,” and “How to know if you’re dating [insert villain’s name].” Slade also conducts a brief interview with each villain.

While the included miscreants range from the real and possibly already familiar, like the outlaw Billy the Kid or mobster Scarface Capone, to the real but obscure, such as Qin Hui, the Benedict Arnold of 12th-century China, most of the entries are about fictitious villains having their roots in folklore or literature. Among them are the Wicked Witch of the West, the Wolf, the Headless Horseman, the Invisible Man, Mephistopheles, and Morgan le Fay. Though 14 chapters focus on a single villain, “Shakespearian Villains” contains seven taken from six different plays. Some villains’ chapters include text boxes which briefly introduce related scoundrels. Despite the book’s lighthearted text, filled with puns and other forms of word play, Slade actually manages to impart much factual information about his subjects. Highly recommended.