You Don't Want a Unicorn!

by Ame Dyckman, Liz Climo (Illustrator)

Overview

"Gleeful unicorn havoc."—Publishers Weekly
"Imaginative fun."—Booklist
"A crowd pleaser."—Horn Book

Be careful what pet you wish for in this hilarious picture book from bestselling author Ame Dyckman and beloved illustrator Liz Climo.

When a little boy throws a coin in a well asking for a pet unicorn, he has no idea what kind of trouble he's in for. Unbeknownst to him, unicorns make the absolutely worst pets: they shed, they poke holes in your ceiling, and they make a big mess. With a knowing wink from Ame Dykeman, creator of Wolfie the Bunny and cheerful illustrations from Rory the Dinosaur creator and Tumblr star Liz Climo, this rollicking story shares all of the ways a pet unicorn can ruin your life, and is sure to have readers in stitches.

Don't miss some of these favorite Ame Dyckman titles:
Wolfie the Bunny
Horrible Bear!
How Dinosaurs Went Extinct: a Safety Guide
You Don't Want a Dragon!

Also available in an expanded hardcover edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316488860
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	07/02/2019
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD490L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 Months to 3 Years

About the Author

Ame Dyckman is the award-winning author of That's Life!, Dandy, Read the Book, Lemmings!, You Don't Want a Unicorn!, Horrible Bear!, the New York Times Bestselling Wolfie the Bunny, and more. Ame lives in New Jersey with her family, pets, and hair bow collection. You can visit Ame on Twitter (@AmeDyckman).

Liz Climo grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and moved to Los Angeles after college to work as a character artist on The Simpsons. She started a comic blog, LizClimo.tumblr.com, and is the author and illustrator of the Rory the Dinosaur series, The Little World of Liz Climo and Lobster is the Best Medicine. Liz currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, and their daughter.

Editorial Reviews

An Amazon Best Book of the Month

A 2018-2019 Florida SSYRA Jr. List Book

Praise for You Don't Want a Unicorn!:
"Climo's rainbow-bright illustrations take Dyckman's silly premise to a whole new level of absurdity.... This is a crowd-pleaser, complete with cupcake poops and rainbow burps, and...a welcoming and unobtrusive gender-nonconforming vibe."—Horn Book

"Climo creates gleeful unicorn havoc...there's a lot of mischievous fun to be had."—Publishers Weekly

"The tone of the wry, bemused narrator is perfect...and the target audience will likely be eager for a repeat listen."

—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Imaginative fun throughout."—Booklist

From the Publisher

12/12/2016
Unicorns: splendiferous magical delight or mythological menace? Dyckman (Horrible Bear!) suggests the latter in this cautionary tale. After a boy wearing an “I unicorns” T-shirt tosses a coin into a fountain, a white unicorn with a voluminous purple mane manifests in a shower of rainbows and stars. The boy is delighted, the unseen narrator not so much. “Sure, having a unicorn seems fun—at first,” the narrator says. “Fine! It’s awesome, okay?!” But this admission is followed by several negatives: unicorns shed, slice furniture to ribbons, and can’t be housetrained. Climo (the Rory the Dinosaur books) creates gleeful unicorn havoc in her droll cartoons as the boy’s new pet sheds golden sparkles, belches rainbows, and more (readers will never look at cupcakes the same way after the house-training scene). After an ultradestructive unicorn party involving a herd decked out in bows, leg warmers, and sunglasses, the boy learns his lesson (sort of). The ending fizzles, but there’s a lot of mischievous fun to be had getting there. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Scott Treimel, Scott Treimel N.Y. Illustrator’s agent: Kathleen Ortiz, New Leaf Literary & Media. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

2016-11-02
A child ignores the advice of an unknown narrator and learns by experience why a pet unicorn is a bad idea.On the title double-page spread, digitized, cartoon artwork shows a light-skinned, brown-haired child clutching a toy unicorn and moving along a park path toward a public fountain. As the child reaches the fountain on the next page, large, black letters overhead declare, "WAIT!" On the next page, the lettering further addresses the child: "You were gonna wish for a unicorn, weren't you? Wishing for a unicorn is a BIG MISTAKE!" When the child drops a coin in anyway, a white unicorn with purple mane appears, looking rather a lot like a horse-sized My Little Pony with a horn. As the child flies above parked cars on unicorn-back, the voice admits that, initially, there are advantages to having a unicorn. There follows a series of pages showing the disadvantages, as the unicorn sheds, tears up the child's home, poops smelly pink cupcakes, and burps a rainbow. The child is still unconvinced, until the "biggest, top secret, nobody-knows-about-it problem" occurs. (Hint: unicorns are social animals.) The text is snarky-conversational with a contemporarily colloquial feel. On first read, children may enjoy the funny pictures and silly text and situations, but, rather like a rainbow-colored belch, it's not substantial enough to sustain many return visits. Best seen as a joke gift for a unicorn lover. (Picture book. 2-6)

Kirkus Reviews