Pip Bartlett's Guide to Unicorn Training

January 15, 2017
Pip, who can talk to magical animals, runs into both a major challenge and a mystery at the Triple Trident show.Pip is naturally over the moon when the large annual gathering of mythological creatures comes to her Georgia town. But the discovery that Regent Maximus, the scene-stealing unicorn first met in Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Beasts (2015), has been entered in a competition presents her with a real poser: can she find ways to keep the hilariously skittish animal from fleeing the ring in blind panic and maybe even put in a good showing? Keeping to their avowed intentions, the co-authors trot in one adorable traditional or newly minted beast after another, from baby unicorns (or as they put it: "Baby. Unicorns") to the sugar-loving greater rainbow mink--which produces candy-scented (but not -flavored) poo--and various occasionally invisible glimmerbeasts like the crested curly woo. All are illustrated and provided with descriptive profiles. Though so free of villains, rivals, or even momentary friction between characters that a mysterious vandal who cuts off unicorn tails turns out to have worthy reasons, the story is rescued from blandness by its humor and its uniformly good-natured multispecies cast. Pip looks white on the cover; her Latino friends Tomas and Marisol are the only characters with specific ethnic markers. A resolutely but not obnoxiously feel-good episode with well-merited just deserts all round. (Fantasy. 8-11)

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March 1, 2017

Gr 3-5-Pip Bartlett and her friend Tomas return in this sequel to Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures. In her latest outing, Pip heads to the Triple Trident Unicorn competition to help her aunt, but soon she and Tomas find themselves attempting to train a high-strung, fearful unicorn and trying to discover who is cutting off unicorn tails in the stables. While most of the plot focuses on Pip's rather humorous training of Regent Maximus and the addition of a number of new magical creatures, the mystery element imbues the story with a bit of seriousness. The book contains guide entries that feature black-and-white illustrations of the various magical creatures, but the placement of the drawings doesn't always line up with the text, making it necessary for readers to do some page flipping. VERDICT Those who enjoyed the previous title will be anxious to pick up this volume, and those who have not read the first installment will quickly find themselves immersed in Pip's world, charmed by the creatures and Pip and her friends and family.-Heather Webb, Worthington Libraries, OH

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2015
Grades 2-4 Nine-year-old Pip Bartlett is crazy about animals, particularly of the magical variety, and she can't wait to spend the summer with her aunt, a magical-animal vet. When Pip arrives at the clinic, however, life soon turns chaotic: the town is infested with combustible pests (fuzzles), and a ruthless government inspector keeps threatening her aunt. Pip teams up with the neighbor boy and an anxious unicorn named Regent Maximus to save the town from a fiery end and to save the fuzzles from an untimely death. Pearce and Stiefvater perk up the real world considerably with the addition of miniature silky griffins, Pegasi, and lilac-horned Pomeranians to an otherwise realistic setting. Illustrated pages from Pip's beloved Jeffrey Higgleston's Guide to Magical Creatures are included, offering magical animal stats with ample annotations made by Pip. Through conversations with Pipyes, she can talk to the animalsthese creatures prove themselves to be memorable characters in their own rights. Lighthearted and funny, this slim book will delight readers who prefer their stories with a fantastic flair.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Pearce, author of the popular Retold Fairytales series, joins acclaimed fantasy pro Stiefvater (Shiver Trilogy and Raven Cycle), to enchant a new, younger audience. Name recognition alone will drive demand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)