Rebecca Patterson, Four Bad Unicorns, Walker Books Australia, May 2022, 32 pp., RRP $29.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781839131035
About 7 or 8 years ago an absolute tsunami of unicorn-related merchandise flooded the market, and it has stuck around. You can now buy unicorn-flavoured clothing, stationery, homewares, artwork, and toys. The other day I even found myself buying “unicorn-flavouring” from the baking section in the supermarket. The book industry has ridden this wave (because that is what the market demands) with varying degrees of success.
Four Bad Unicorns is another unicorn-themed picture book that is vying for attention and a slice of the flooded market. Connie and her sister Frankie are self-confessed unicorn addicts. On the first page, we see them both waking up in unicorn onesies, with unicorn toys, bedsheets, and drawings adorning their room. They each wear a horn to breakfast, eat their Unicorn Puffs out of horned bowls and then go off to play their best make-believe game, unicorn farmers.
Each book needs a conflict. In this book, it arrives on the doorstep in the form of a couple of eager neighbours who claim to want to join in, but in reality, take over. Ada is especially bossy. As she repeatedly criticises the play, we see Connie and Frankie become more and more disgruntled until they rebel against the self-proclaimed unicorn queen.
The style of the bright and emotive illustrations is unrefined, you can see that sometimes the colours are outside of the line. They are perfectly imperfect, which is a wonderful match for a book about imaginative play.
Reviewed by Cherie Bell
