Margaret's Unicorn by Briony May Smith

Margaret and her parents move to a new home in the countryside. On the first afternoon Margaret sees some unicorns racing through the sky:

'They were leaping into the air, swept up by the wind. And then in the blink, they were gone."

All except one tiny baby unicorn. Margaret carries the precious baby home. Her grandmother explains unicorns only eat flowers. Since it is autumn there are not too many flowers around so they head to the town florist where they pick up beautiful bunches of flowers. 

Unicorns need to drink water that has been touched by moonlight so later that night Margaret and her dad head out with buckets to collect water where the moonlight has touched the stream. 

Have you noticed something truly wonderful here. All of the adults can see the baby unicorn and all of them believe they are real. This is such a point of difference from other books about unicorns.

Time passes and the unicorn grows bigger. In the Spring, the flying unicorns return and it is time for the baby to be reunited with her mother. So this is a book about new friends, care of others and about letting go.

Yes there’s magic in this lyrical tale but never of the sparkly sort; rather it has an earthiness fed by the landscapes and the seasonal changes all around, so beautifully captured in the illustrations, that and the love. Red Reading Hub

The illustrations in Margaret's Unicorn are very special - here is a example from Briony May Smith's Facebook page:

Take a look at other books by Briony May Smith. I love the way the illustration above shows shadows and light. 

Image from the title page -  source: Briony May Smith

When I was a very young child I read a book about a unicorn and I loved it. Fast forward to 2022 and the shops are filled with unicorn "stuff" and lots of fairly ghastly pink and sparkling picture books about unicorns. Thankfully Margaret's Unicorn is nothing like that. Unicorns are every where now. I do love the ones on the main post office building in our city of Sydney. My friend had a birthday party for her one year old grand daughter the other day and the theme and cake were all about unicorns. I did wonder how a one year old baby would even know about unicorns!  

I have a Pinterest collection of Picture Books that feature unicorns (of course there are many more that I could add). Here are some other unicorn books I have talked about on this blog:

The Unicorn in the Barn

The Unicorn Prince

The Christmas Unicorn

A Plague of Unicorns

Eloise and the Bucket of Stars

Oh, and if you are wondering about the unicorn book I read back in the 1960s it was this one: The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.