THERE WAS A SILLY UNICORN WHO WANTED TO FLY

Will this little unicorn get her wish to soar through the bright, blue sky?

The action plays out in the patterned manner of “There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly.” Unfortunately, it struggles to achieve that classic’s familiar meter and scansion. “There was a silly unicorn who wanted to fly. / She tried by swallowing a bee, OH MY! / The buzzing would surely make her go high.” She swallows a butterfly to assist the bee. Unfortunately for the other winged creatures in her vicinity, that does not help her to “dance with the trees.” She next gulps down a bat. Still grounded, she gobbles an owl, to no avail. Even swallowing an eagle doesn’t get her into the air. But when she sees a rainbow, it magically lifts her into the sky…and the friends she swallowed in her misguided attempts to get airborne all magically pop out so they can “swirl and whirl and dance with the trees.” Barclay’s pudgy, pink unicorn and bright, generic landscapes can’t save this leaden effort, though the swirl of cakes and candies in the unicorn’s stomach do nicely echo the treacle in the text. The verse is maddeningly difficult to read aloud due to its clunky meter and frequent departure from its model’s form. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.9-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 15.9% of actual size.)

Even the most rabid members of the unicorn-loving herd should stampede away.