Title: Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great
Author/Illustrator: Bob Shea
Published: 2013 Hyperion

Have you ever been the big fish in a small pond, only to have a larger, shinier, cooler fish swim along and wreck everything?

Our book has nothing to do with fish.

It does, however, feature a unicorn that shows up to completely usurp a goat’s place as the cool dude in school.

Goat has all sorts of commendable traits: he bikes to school (Unicorn flies), he makes pretty OK marshmallow squares (Unicorn makes it rain cupcakes), and he does really decent magic. (Unicorn turns stuff into gold. No biggie.)

Goad decides that, based on all the aforementioned evidence, Unicorn is a grade-A dope. That is, until Unicorn shows up and points out some of Goat’s finer points (goat cheese, horns suited to soccer and awesome cloven hooves).

Goat realizes that they could combine their amazing traits to become a super crime-fighting team. Unicorn suggests that maybe they could just be friends and play at the park.

I love this book! I ordered it on a whim after reading about it on another review site. It did not disappoint! The art is nothing short of whimsical. It’s so colourful and the expressions on the characters’ faces are delightful. There are random super-cute characters in the backgrounds throughout the book (a puppy, a kitty, various cupcakes and toast) and they just add to the quirkiness of the book. The ’80’s kid in me totally digs the bright, nearly-neon palette Bob Shea used.

The story itself is a great lesson about friendship. Don’t assume that someone is a certain way. Get to know them! Maybe you’ll find that your skills are complementary!

The girls listened to their fabulous mama and daddy give a reading of this picture book during dessert. (I was the unicorn, in case you were wondering). Vivi really loved Unicorn. Lily liked the part where they became friends. Karl loved being Goat. I think. He didn’t really say that and I didn’t really ask, but his goat performance was top-notch.

Overall Score:
Jess: 5 adorable cupcakes out of 5
Vivi: A
Lily: All the cute toast characters ever