The Unicorn that said No by Marc-Uwe Kling Illustrated by Astrid Henn, Templar Books ISBN 9781787418424 £6.99
A baby unicorn appears in the pink, fluffy world of the unicorns but the only word it utters is ‘No’, despite various tempting treats. So he is named uNOcorn. The first pages of the book are in rhyming couplets, but when we learn that the uNOcorn can’t stand it, the rest of the book is in prose. He leaves his homeland and encounters a HUHcoon, a SOWHATch dog and a PrincYES, with whom he then lives. And no – he isn’t reformed, none of them are. The end of the book invites us to invent our own moral if we wish, and to make up stories for other oddly named creatures such as the Snabster, the Battlesnake or the Bored Constrictor. Age range 3-6 years.
Pam Dowson
