Unicorns are the Worst
Author & Illustrator: Alex Willan
Simon & Schuster
Ages 3-8
The book follows the tale of a thoroughly unimpressed goblin who has been living in peace for hundreds of years going about “completing my important goblin business in peace.”
X (object of a six-year olds withering disdain) is THE WORST!
If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard those words out of my six year olds mouths, I could retire.
So I was intrigued to pick this book up. The book follows the tale of a thoroughly unimpressed goblin who has been living in peace for hundreds of years going about “completing my important goblin business in peace.” That is, until some unicorns decide to move into the meadow next door!
Goblins do important things like study forgotten magic, and turn broccoli into ice cream that still tastes like broccoli, while all the unicorns do is frolic on their dainty unicorn hooves.
And the glitter…
So.
MUCH.
GLITTER!
The goblin continues on his self-important rant that makes you wonder if he just feels left out of all the unicorn parties. Meanwhile, he fails to notice a pair of sinister eyes peeking from the forest.
Suddenly he finds himself being chased and cornered by a dragon. Cornered, he is suddenly very forthcoming about all the good traits of the unicorns. It turns out all that frolicking and glitter comes in handy when trying to vanquish a dragon.
The illustrations in this book are fantastic, juxtaposing the candy-colored, glitter covered unicorns against the darker more serious goblin.
This book is a funny and cute lesson on getting to know others before we judge them and not jumping to conclusions about the intentions of others. Which is why I was a tad disappointed that the book ended on the goblin and unicorns agreeing on the fact that “Dragons are the worst!”
Frankly, and I do this to more books than I care to name, as a parent I’d just substitute another line “Parties are the best!” for example, or write it in for the little readers. Why make a point and then undermine it at the very end?
Unicorns are the Worst (Support an Independent Bookstore)*
Unicorns are the Worst (Amazon)*
More books for this Age Group can be found here.
My thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing a Review Copy of this book. All opinions provided herein are my own.
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