After all these years of Phoebe hanging out with her unicorn Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, it’s finally Phoebe’s turn to be the unicorn. It’s the school play, where Phoebe is auditioning for the lead role, Yoony the Unicorn. At first, Marigold is against the play, as the lead character seems to her to be Sparkles the Snail, and she is not impressed with the pro-mollusk propaganda. But as she runs lines with Phoebe, she goes on a journey of personal discovery to find her inner snail.
Phoebe and Marigold also find a magical portal to a dimension of pure evil and meet their evil counterparts. Evil Marigold has the ability to wear a monocle and tells bad jokes. Evil Phoebe annoyingly pokes at Regular Phoebe and yells out evil things, like, “That one flavor of Skittles you don’t like!”
And once the school year winds down, and it’s time for Phoebe to go to music camp for a week, and Marigold goes with her. Phoebe’s friend Sue jumps out at her and talks about her new musical passion—punk rock. Phoebe is okay with punk, so she decides to learn the bass. Sue decides to learn to smash things. Phoebe pairs with guitarist Stevie to write an original song for the band. And Sue pairs with Marigold to smash things. Having Marigold help her is useful because she can use an Un-Smashing Spell to put the things they smash back together. It’s like recycling.
While Phoebe finds her week being a punk rocker rewarding, she leaves camp having a problem with her parents. They are so supportive of her and her dreams that she doesn’t really have anything to rebel against. Can you be a punk rocker and be happy? Of course, how unhappy can you really be when your best friend is a unicorn?
Punk Rock Unicorn is the latest adventure in Dana Simpson’s Phoebe and Her Unicorn Adventure series. Like the other books in the series, this one is witty and smart, with colorful illustrations and imaginative story lines. And at the back of the book is a glossary, in case you need to know what a gopher is, or Crisco, fetlocks, Southern Belle, teleportation, nuance, or New Coke.
Punk Rock Unicorn is so much fun, all about this adorable friendship and the love Phoebe and Marigold share for each other (which is different than the love Marigold has for herself). They support each other through revenge crushes and anxiety, procrastination and neighing practices. And graphic novels are totally books, just like Phoebe says, and this is one that is worth your time. It would be a great gift for kids looking for a whimsical story to lose themselves in, or for adults looking for the same thing.
Egalleys for Punk Rock Unicorns were provided by Andrews McMeel Publishing through Edelweiss, with many thanks.
