Page 45 Review by Stephen
Welcome back, my lovelies, for a brand-new all-ages adventure by our biggest-selling picture book creator, Sarah McIntyre! Please visit our dedicated Philip Reeve & Sarah McIntyre webpage here https://www.page45.com/store/Philip-Reeve-And-Sarah-McIntyre.html to read our reviews.
FABULOUS! It's all going to be FABULOUS!
And discovery is everything, especially when it comes to friendship.
Dawn beckons you into a brand-new day of fresh air, enormous potential and limitless possibilities. And oh, but the patterns of colour!
The northern sun radiates dazzling displays of prismatic gold, and then streams across a quite chilly sea, rippling its liquid light over cool blue and purples.
Out on a wooden jetty, Unicorn has evidently been fashioning something very big and very exciting and very, very mysterious - and he has done so with a DIY diligence that puts me to shame.
It is a rocket!
"I'm going to discover the most FABULOUS planet in the universe," he said.
Do you believe him? I do!
"This made him feel very pleased with himself. He already liked being an astronaut."
He's certainly put a lot of work in; and a great deal of thought too. For as well as the buttons and switches and levers, as well as the gizmos and views screens and astronomical charts, Unicorn has decked out his new cockpit domain with hand-drawn portraits of his favourite friends (all his friends were his favourites, but too many more pictures and there'd be no room for doughnuts) and all the other essentials for intergalactic travel.
His tea and coffee making facilities won't let him down!
There are biscuit dispensers and foil-wrapped boiled sweets in case his tummy rumbles or his mouth runs dry... I spy a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste too! Very wise! There's a bell jar with a miniature fruiting orange tree inside. Underneath I spy a sleeping bag complete with cuddly Teddycorn! What else can you and your young ones spot? Sarah always packs her pages with so many fun things for bright eyes to discover and relish! Those 'accelerate' and 'brake' hoof pedals made me howl!!!
And that is a disco ball, yes!
There should always be disco! He might want to dance!
Unicorn might also want to get his ego back under control again too. Do you remember where he went wrong in GRUMPYCORN? I do!
For when Mermaid and Narwhal and Jellyfish are keen as can be to accompany him on His Expedition (for which he is secretly grateful - most of the best experiences are shared experiences and nobody wants to be left all alone), he doesn't half make himself the centre of attention and demand that he must do everything FIRST and LOUDEST like...
"LIFT OFF!"
Or
"BLAST OFF!"
Or whatever he booms: whatever he booms is bound to be FABULOUS!
Best beloveds, we have barely begun, but I'm going to leave you there to discover for yourselves what happens next.
Clue: they do discover a planet, and it is FABULOUS!
Another clue: Unicorn needs to get one - a clue. A clue as to what are really the most important things in life.
Final clue: the answers are true friends and friendship.
Mermaid and Narwhal and Jellyfish are thrilled with their voyage, as loyal as ever and so very patient with Unicorn's self-centred commands, but he really does need to rein himself in!
Far from saccharine, like THE NEW NEIGHBOURS, this is another exuberant belter from Sarah McIntyre about getting your priorities right early in life and so setting yourself firmly on course for maximum fun and frolics.
Did I mention the details? There are no spoilers here, but you're in for a riot of running jokes that grow cumulatively funnier, and a planetary sphere which could only be called Disco!
