ROY G. BIV GOES MISSING! Pete the Kitty and the Unicorn's Missing Colors by Kimberly and James Dean

At the park Pete spots his buddy, Stevie the unicorn, looking sad.

"THE MAGIC UNICORN DANCE IS TONIGHT," SAYS STEVIE.

"I LOST THE COLORS IN MY TAIL PLAYING IN THE PARK."

"I'LL NEVER FIND MY COLORS BEFORE THE DANCE CONTEST!"

Pete wants to help restore Stevie's rainbow tail colors with his Magic Brush, but he needs to know what colors to look for.

"RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO, VIOLET" SAYS STEVIE.

That's easy-peasy for Pete the Kitty. With his Magic Paint Brush, he gathers red from berries, orange from flowers, yellow from a butterfly, green from grass, indigo blue from the lake, and violet from the clouds, and zaps them into each plume of Stevie's tail.

With his rainbow tail restored to its spectacular spectrum, Stevie and Pete are ready to party down at the dance contest.

The scientifically esteemed ROY G. BIV rides again as the mnemonic device for remembering the colors of the rainbow, as Stevie the Unicorn wins the dance contest, and Pete the Kitty is proud to help his friend make a hit at the dance, in Kimberly and James Dean's rainbow rescue first reader, Pete the Kitty and the Unicorn's Missing Colors (My First I Can Read) (Harper I-Can-Read Books). This one by the prolific couple of Kim and James Dean is a great beginning reader for fans of little Pete and a rhythmic review of the colors for the preschool and primary crowd.

Find more Pete the Kitty early readers here:

Dreams Can Come True! Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn by Shannon Hale

KITTY THINKS SHE MIGHT BE A UNICORN.

With cardboard and glue, yarn and some poster paints, she creates a just-her-size unicorn horn and with her itty-bitty horn on top of her fuzzy fur, Kitty fancies she had become...

.

But her co-pets, Parakeet and Gecko, beg to differ. She's a cat, they agree. They point out her fuzzy fur and her tiny little tail. They tell her she has soft kitty paws with claws, not hard hooves that prance! Itty-Bitty Kitty puffs out her tail....:

NEIGH! NEIGH!!"YOU'RE A CAT!" SAID PARAKEET.

"THAT'S THAT!" ECHOED GECKO!

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But that's not that! Just as Kitty-Korn sadly takes off her horn, they hear it...

CLOP! CLOP! CLOP!

"NOW THAT'S A UNICORN!" CRIES GECKO!

And Kitty-Corn is happy to find out that the Unicorn likes her fuzzy fur, tiny tail and her crafted unicorn horn, and they play all afternoon until at last their merging shadows rest together in the setting sun, in Shannon Hale's Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn (Abrams Books, 2021), illustrated in completely unashamed, totally adorable, pink cuteness by artist Leyuen Pham. Fanciful dreams can make for good fun in this book for young unicorn fanciers. Writes Publisher Weekly, "What ostensibly starts out as an almost criminally cute tale of pretend play transforms into something much more: a celebration of claiming and naming one’s identity and having it affirmed by others."

He's SO Unique! That's Not My Unicorn....Its Mane is Too Fluffy! by Fiona Watt.

THAT'S NOT MY UNICORN!

HIS MANE IS TOO FLUFFY!

For a mythical mystery tour, a kid must have a unicorn, ye old horne'd steed of the magical creed.

But the discriminating tot has to find just the right sort of wondrous ride. Just any old unicorn will not do!

As the title specifies, its mane can't be too fluffy.

Its ears cannot be TOO soft, either. On the other hand, its hooves best not be that bumpy, either. And then the wings aren't feathery enough, either.

In Fiona Watt's latest in the Touchy-Feely series, That's Not My Unicorn... (Usborne, 2017), illustrated in simple black line drawings by Rachel Wells, the best mythical beast simply must have a horn that sparkles!

But the young reader does not have to be forlorn! Just look! There's MY unicorn! The best fantasy mount has a sparkly horn! Usborne's touchable and tactile series of tiny but virtually indestructable board books offers lots of feely finger fun for the very youngest unicorn fancier.

For more fantastical feely experiences, share this one with That's Not My Dragon...(Usborne Touchy-Feely Books).

Miraculous Beast? Agnes Loves Unicorns by Universal Studios

Agnes has two things she wishes for more than anything.

To start with, she (and her two sisters) are orphans.

Every night she dreamed that a mommy and daddy would adopt them soon.

She also wanted a unicorn.

Well, who doesn't?

And POOF! Suddenly the sisters do get adopted by nice parents. Now Agnes' bucket list is down to one thing.

Every night she keeps her sisters Margo and Edith awake with her unicorn song.

"I love unicorns, uni, uni, unicorns..."

It's not very inventive, but it is annoying, according to her sleepy sisters.

Then, when their new daddy, Gru, takes the girls to a theme park, Super Silly Land, Agnes picks out the Unicorn of her dreams....

Perhaps the fluffiest unicorn ever!

And is that the happiest ending ever? Well, no, not just yet, in Universal Studios' new movie, Despicable Me3, not with Minion Kevin and the usual despicable suspects lurking around, in Despicable Me 3: Agnes Loves Unicorns! (Centrum Books, 2017), with its uber-cute characters, sure to be the next big thing in preschool motion pictures--now screening at the cineplex near you!

The Secret of Harper's Woods: The Unicorn in the Barn by Jacqueline K. Ogburn

There had always been talk of a white deer in Harper's Woods. Eric Harper has always wanted to see it, but when he spots a flash of white through the trees, he discovers something else.

The animal stepped away from the underbrush.

It wasn't a deer.

White and glowing, with slender legs and a long curved neck, it raised its head. and I knew. Ponies don't have coats that shimmer like a pearl. And there's never been a pony born with an ivory horn curling from the center of its forehead.

It was a unicorn. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

Eleven-year-old Eric is filled with a sense of joy unlike anything he's known. He quietly follows the shimmering figure as it limps toward the old farmhouse and barn where his family had lived always until Eric's dad was forced to sell part of the land to pay for his grandmother's nursing home. As he peers through a dusty window in the barn and sees their new neighbor, the veterinarian, Dr. Brancusi, speaking softly to unicorn as she treats her hoof, he is discovered by the vet's angry daughter Allegra. But when Dr. Brancusi learns that Maggie Harper is Eric's grandmother, she surprisingly accepts him, allowing him to listen through her stethoscope to the heartbeats of the twins the unicorn, Moonpearl, is carrying, and swearing him to secrecy, offers him a job helping care for her animal patients.

In due time Eric meets some of Dr. Brancusi's other mystical creatures, Timothy, a talking white cat with an invisible midsection, Prissy, an irascible goose who happens to lay a golden egg now and then, and the Squonk, a strange brown jelly-like thing that lives in a jar of murky water and sometimes sings exquisitely beautiful songs at night. And when his school friend Jamal brings in his gravely ill dog, Eric gets to see the magical powers of Moonpearl's horn cure the pet. Eric begins to save the long white hairs from Moonpearl's coat for a bracelet to help his grandmother. They seem to cure her arthritic hands and Eric hopes that a necklace he and Allegra make will return Grandmother to health.

But trespassing hunters in Harper's Woods, hoping to bag the white deer. spot something white in the woods.

Gunshots! I caught sight of neon orange, a hunter's vest. I crept closer. There were two of them.

I saw a flash of white near a thicket. There was a shot and a yowling sound. Timothy! Those morons were shooting at Timothy!

I stepped out from behind the tree, yelling. "Aaah!" I screamed. My left leg was on fire. I felt blood soaking through my jeans.

Eric's leg has only a minor wound, but in rapid order things take a significant turn. His dad discovers the magical nature of some of Dr. Brancusi's patients, Moonpearl takes this time to have her babies, and Grandmother has a heart attack and Eric fears he will lose the only one who understands how he feels about the creatures. And when Grandmother Harper dies, Eric feels lost in the swirl of events.

But Grandmother leaves him a personal letter which explains everything.

If you are reading this I must be gone. There are other things, wonderful, magical things that appear in our woods. We Harpers have always looked out for them. I always knew that you would be the one.

Jacqueline K. Ogburn's reverent but magical story, The Unicorn in the Barn (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017) is gentle and sweet, both a fantasy adventure and a tender coming-of-age story of a young boy who feels a calling for his family's long held a unique relationship with the creatures of their land, ordinary and extraordinary. Eric assumes his role as one of the two Harpers who bear the family responsibility to protect that spirit of goodness that the unicorn represents in this moving magical tale of family and mysteries beyond things seen. Children who are drawn to myths and imaginings just beyond the real will find that this extraordinary novel points to more than a literary brush with the supernatural.

Whose Unicorn Is It? Goldilicious by Victoria Kann

"I'm getting Goldie ready for the Unicorn Ball," I said.

"What unicorn? I don't see any unicorn," said Peter.

"She's right here and she's not any unicorn; she's my unicorn. Her name is Goldicious--Goldie."

But before Peter can launch into his logical argument against the reality of unicorns, Pinkalicious suddenly turns to Goldie and begins to scold:

"Oh, Goldie, you should do THAT on the floor! You know better. Just neigh if you need to go outside. I'm sorry, Peter, but you are stepping right in it." I said.

Little brother Peter may profess not to believe in unicorns, but he can't help sneaking a disgusted look at the bottom of his shoes as big sister Pinkalicious sweeps proudly by, leading her private unicorn Goldie outside.

It's a bit of sibling one-up-manship, and Peter is determined to best his sister's pink-tastic mythical friend. Peter bravely ascends into Goldie's tree house redoubt, and as the powerful Wandering Wizard, declares that he will kidnap her and hold her prisoner in his own castle. And with that, Peter is himself hooked by Pinkie's fantasy, and the two soon are deep in their roles in one fanciful unicorn adventure after another--from swashbuckling buccaneers to sailing through the darkling sky on unicornback.

"Wow! Not only can she float on water. She can float in the air. Goldie is flying!" said Peter.

It's a great playtime--all in the golden afternoon--for both Pinkalicious and, as it turns out, for her naysaying but imaginative little brother as well, one that lasts until it's almost time for bed.

Goldilicious (Harper, 2009) is the sequel to Victoria Kann's best-selling Pinkalicious and Purplicious. Fans of that other glitter girl, Fancy Nancy will also find Pinkie's latest story a fine ride on a pink-tastic steed.