Illustrations – Adele K. Thomas
I couldn’t help myself! After finding out that Pearl’s sequel involved her flying I had to read it. Pearl the magical unicorn (is there any other kind?) and her friends Olive the ogre and Tweet the firebird are on another adventure. This time they’re on the trail of some pink glitter feathers that blew away in a gust of wind when Pearl was trying on Olive’s new hat. Along the way they encounter some gobble-uns, the baddies from the first book.
I enjoyed this book more than the first in the series. I was a bit overwhelmed by the sweetness of the first book and found Pearl’s random outbursts annoying. This time around I was expecting the sweet story and Pearl’s “Bolting buckets!”, “Blundering bats” and “Purple parsnips!” felt more like a quirk of her character to be expected, not irritated by. I expect kids who read this series will find Pearl’s exclamations funny and will enjoy Pearl, Olive and Tweet’s friendship. It was a tad convenient that Pearl’s magic only works properly when it absolutely has to but I doubt kids will care about that.
Handy hint: If you ever meet Pearl, the magic you need to know is “Flickety-prance-flick!” Get her to do this for you and a pink cupcake will fall from the sky and land on your head, intact and the right way up.
The main thing I remembered from my review of Pearl the Magical Unicorn was that it was PINK! Not to be outdone, the sequel is also PINK! Once again, Adele K. Thomas’ illustrations were adorable and the detailed expressions enhanced the characters’ personalities. I loved the background animals, particularly the frog, whale and stingrays, but my favourite had to be the bug shaking its fist at Pearl and her friends.
Yes, I do already have the third book in the series on order from the library so you’ll be hearing all about PINK! Pearl the Proper Unicorn around February 2019. In the meantime, if you’re in need of cupcakes just remember, “Flickety-prance-flick!”
Once Upon a Blurb
Pearl, Olive and Tweet are on the hunt for glitter feathers! But they’ve blown all the way over to Gull Island. They use Olive’s ogre-boat to reach the island, but rowing quickly behind them are three mean and stinky pirate gobble-uns!
Can Pearl use her magic to save her friends in time?
Schizanthus Nerd 