UNICORNIA

More adventures in Unicornia.

Claudia loves everything about her new home, a magical city created to safeguard unicorns. She and her pal Sara are excited to celebrate their BFF Pippa’s birthday. Pippa’s parents travel the globe, looking for lost unicorns, and Pippa barely sees them. When their plans to return home for her birthday fall through due to a snowstorm, a disappointed Pippa cancels her party. But at her friends’ urging, she agrees to accompany them to the amusement park. When the girls get stuck at the top of a flying Ferris wheel, the Emergency Unicorns—Unicornia’s version of first responders—come to the rescue. Translated from Spanish, the tale wraps up with an all-sweets picnic, including a magical cake that gives eaters the ability to perform handstands, somersaults, and flying pirouettes. Unicornia isn’t all cotton candy and glittery drinks—vegetable soup appears once, slurped down quickly to get to dessert—but magic-infused concoctions are the order of the day. Though Claudia expresses some uncertainty, she narrates in a chipper tone; conflicts are easily resolved, and frowns swiftly turn to smiles. The turquoise-tinged cartoon illustrations differentiate the girls by hairstyle and color; characters have skin the white of the page. If readers’ appetite for heart-shaped cupcakes and quadruple-chocolate cookies isn’t sated, more sequels follow. The events of the first installment aren’t recapped, so newcomers may want to start there.

Frothy unicorn fun.