The Teeny-Weeny Unicorn
by Shawn Harris; illus. by the author
Primary    Knopf    48 pp.
2/24    9780593571880    $18.99
Library ed.  9780593571897    $21.99
e-book ed.  9780593571903    $10.99

The title page of this adventure features both a unicorn and a rainbow, but things quickly shift from cutesy to a more absurd and sidelong tone. The unnamed teeny-weeny unicorn is the smallest member of his family. This is obviously a relatable condition for the potential reader or listener, but this unicorn really is small—about the size of a chess piece, too small to jump over a taco. His siblings, Fancy Annie and Prince Butterscotch, are condescending and mean. But size is relative, and when our hero inadvertently steps on and squishes the sports car belonging to an even tinier, tough-talking gnome (who then demands a settlement of $250,000), he realizes that in gnome terms he’s a giant. The debt gets sorted out, but even better, the teeny-weeny unicorn gets a day alone at his family’s palace home playing games by himself—and the realization that he’s a perfect size just as he is. The illustrations, in oil pastel, feature a dynamic relationship between text and images and hefty lashings of pink. Harris (Have You Ever Seen a Flower?, rev. 7/21) again uses the smearing potential of pastels to great effect in showing the teeny protagonist accelerating from walking to trotting to cantering to galloping. This original take on unicorn life and troubles elicits a wry grin on every page.

From the January/February 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.