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A GOOD TEAM by Heather Ayris Burnell

A GOOD TEAM

From the Unicorn and Yeti series, volume 2

by Heather Ayris Burnell ; illustrated by Hazel Quintanilla

Pub Date: June 25th, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-32905-6
Publisher: Scholastic

Pals Unicorn and Yeti return for a second, teamwork-filled adventure!

In the first of three short chapters, Yeti, who is good at kicking, invites Unicorn to play ball. As it turns out, Unicorn is not so good at kicking. Unicorn thinks they’re better at bouncing, but, sadly, the ball just gets stuck on their horn. When Yeti pulls the ball off the horn—POP!—the ball turns into a ring. The pair maintains their positivity by switching to a ring-toss game. In subsequent chapters, Unicorn and Yeti try a racing game (once they can agree on the method) and ice skating (once Unicorn figures out bipedal movement). Throughout, they stay on message: The best fun happens with strengths-based collaboration. Excluding a sentence that sets the scene and a short narrative action sequence, the majority of the story is told through dialogue. As with the first book, dialogue is color-coded (purple for Yeti; orange for Unicorn). The comic-book format mixes panel shapes and sizes, at most six per double-page spread. Repetitive dialogue helpfully recycles phrases and never exceeds three short sentences per speech bubble. Some words are bolded for emphasis. Yeti is identified with the masculine pronoun, but Unicorn is ungendered. Quintanilla’s colorful, expressive art and Burnell’s infectiously whimsical tone make their own good team. The final page includes instructions on how to draw Yeti and a short creative prompt.

More sparkly, delightfully silly fun for Unicorn and Yeti fans.

(Graphic early reader. 4-7)