I am not sure how Unicorn Is Maybe Not So Great After All by Bob Shea compares to the first book (Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great) as I have not read it (or if I have, it made no impression whatsoever).
This time Unicorn is jealous of the new “hot thing” (rubber bands looking like other things: a soccer ball, wagon wheel, port holes…) and tries to make a new and improved Unicorn. Of course, the plan backfires with a face full of glitter. A lot of glitter. But Unicorn’s friends show Unicorn what is really important. And it is not about glitter, or how flashy you are or how big your horn is. This book about friendship has a familiar theme with some not always soothing ways of telling it.
The abstractness of Shea’s illustrations is awkward for me. It is the getting to the few fun pieces which mean going around the rainbows and glitter and slightly more than a little annoying glamour of Unicorn. The fact that it looks like Unicorn has at least two eyes on one side at one point was unsettling to say the least. The few hidden gems that there are (like who the famous author who is coming to school will be) are amusing (hint: you are reading a review about one of their books) but they are few and far between.
Did you, you child/grandchild/niece/nephew/cousin or classroom like Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great? Do they think off-beat sense of humor is the only way to laugh? Then they have found their next reading book.
