Unicorns and Friends is a combination of board book and toy, featuring the adventures of a group of colourful unicorns named Rosy, Blue, Clementine, Razzle-Berry, River, and Sherbet. Though they are a group, they each have distinctive characteristics: some are adventurous (Rosy and Razzle-Berry); Clementine likes sunshine while Blue enjoys evening walks… All love the “very special, magical creatures that are their friends and neighbours.” (p. 1). These creatures include Pol Peryton (a winged deer that features in Jorge Luis Borges’s Book of Imaginary Beings (1957)); J. J. Jackalope (a horned jackrabbit, from the North American tradition). Delilah the Dragon is “very good at starting bonfires” (p. 5), and likes to play tag with “Gladys Griffin.” Horace the Hippocamp (p. 7) teaches the unicorns to swim. “Horace is a very wise teacher.  When he’s not giving swimming lessons, he tutors the unicorns in Ancient Greek!” (p. 7). And Pegasus likes to hang out at night, teaching the unicorns about the stars (p. 9). The final page of the book shows all the unicorns and their friends together, with a statement: “they even know that there is a wonderful child somewhere who believes in them, and is just as magical and special as they are. Who could it be?” (p. 11).  

The back of the book contains two small partitions. In one of them is a fold-out mat with images of sylvan scenes (featuring meadows, rivers, rainbows); in the other are ten small plastic toy versions of the unicorns and their friends. The reader can fold out the map and play with the toys, making up new stories and participating in the magical world.

This book/toy for beginning readers incorporates concepts of play and imagination into a work that aims to be an immersive fantasy. The text describes an idyllic, playful world that children aged 3–5 can enter, joining with a group of friendly magical creatures who demonstrate that all kinds of beings can get along, and that values different character traits, abilities and interests. All the figures are deliberately “cute,” with large eyes, and big heads on small bodies, in a way that is reminiscent of toddlers and young children. The mythical creatures come from a variety of traditions: the North American Jackalope, the South American Peryton, the Classical Greek Hippocamp, Griffin and Pegasus, and the European Unicorn and Dragon. The inclusion of toys and a play mat encourage the story to extend beyond the confines of the book, appealing to children’s sense of play and imagination.

The publisher, Phidal, specialises in texts for early childhood, emphasizing play as an important aspect of learning: Unicorns and Friends’ combination of simple text, attractive images, and small toys that can be incorporated into storytelling and games, fits this brief well.