The Very Short, Entirely True History of Unicorns

by Sarah Laskow, Sam Beck (Illustrator)

Overview

From cuddly pool floats to rainbow-colored toast toppings, unicorns—the darlings of Instagram—have never been more exciting or more popular.

Are unicorns real? Their popularity and enduring role in human culture certainly is. How can you win a fight against a unicorn? Why do some unicorns have wings? Why are unicorns often pictured with rainbows? Get answers to these questions and more in this fun look at unicorns throughout history. This four-color, fully illustrated book provides everything you always wanted to know about the myths, science, and history that surround the unicorn, a creature that has grown even more popular in the twenty-first century. With its stylish design and fresh, captivating illustrations, The Very Short, Entirely True History of Unicorns will appeal to readers—children and adults alike—who can't get enough of the world's most elusive animal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781524792732
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	08/13/2019
Pages:	96
Sales rank:	419,355
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 7.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	980L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Sarah Laskow is a reporter, writer, and Online Senior Science Editor for The Atlantic based in New York City.

Sam Beck is an illustrator and cartoonist living in Toronto, Canada.

Editorial Reviews

05/20/2019

Laskow explores the mythology and history of unicorns, from their first documented references by ancient Greek and Roman writers to today’s ubiquitous unicorn-themed foods, memes, and wearable unicorn horns. Laskow includes works of classic unicorn art, such as medieval tapestries, and explores unicorn legends beyond Europe (India’s Rishyasringa is “a unicorn-like man”). Beck’s versatile, original illustrations supply a light, modern aesthetic (a bride is pictured wearing a unicorn wedding dress). In addition to the subject’s inclusion in literature and art, sections explore the unicorn’s potency as a symbol of health, hope, and healing, with the unicorn horn said to have medicinal properties. But are unicorns really real? Laskow describes extinct and existing animals, including narwhals, whose tusks were once mistaken for unicorn horns, and which may account for some unicorn myths. If the mythical animals’ enduring resonance proves anything, Laskow suggests, unicorns are in no danger of leaving the realms of collective imagination any time soon. Ages 8–12. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

08/01/2019

Gr 4–7—The idea of a single-horned animal with magical powers has been shared in many cultures throughout history. Laskow begins with ancient Greek and Roman lore, then moves on to include Biblical tales of a one-horned animal, highlights stories found in Asia where the creature could foretell the future, and shares how unicorns became the symbol of love in Europe during the Middle Ages. Laskow describes real animals that may have been the inspiration for the creature now called the unicorn, including the rhino and narwhal. The book is chronologically organized and features short, two- to three-page chapters. Laskow ends with the 21st century and the newfound fascination with colorful unicorn food and even includes a candy recipe. A short bibliography is listed at the end. The illustrations sprinkled throughout are colorful representations of unicorns found in art and literature. VERDICT A book that covers the general history of unicorns, ending on the present day cultural interpretation. For large collections with patrons who are clamoring for anything related to unicorns.—Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Avondale, LA

School Library Journal

2019-06-16
A compact survey of single-horned beasts in legend, nature, pop culture, and business.

Laskow begins "more than 2,300 years ago" with a reference to one-horned wild asses. She then moves along with genial dispatch through versions of the creature reported from China, Chile, medieval Europe, and elsewhere—plus variations such as Rishyasringa, a horned man in the Indian epics—and how the concept of unicorns has changed from scary wild beast to rainbow-pooping white steed. She describes how they can be captured by "maidens" (euphemistically defined as "unmarried girls and young women") and the uses to which their supposed horns can supposedly be put. Along with tallying such verifiable examples as the rhinoceros, unicorn fish, and, of course, narwhal, she also explains how goats and other animals can sometimes, through accident or human design, grow but one horn. Trotting from topic to topic in fairly arbitrary fashion, she brings her account up to the present by stringing together references to unicorn-themed weddings, My Little Pony, unicorn lattes and cupcakes, video games, "unicorn" business startups, and other current usages. Beck slips occasional cartoon-style human figures of diverse skin color into the equally casual mix of maps, beastly portraits, period images, and freely redrawn pictures of old art and artifacts.

Likely destined to be left in the dust soon but more up to date than most. (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 8-11)

Kirkus Reviews