Sophie Johnson, Unicorn Expert transcends the alicorn crowd

Sophie Johnson loves unicorns. In way she’s like any dreamy-eyed kid between four and eight who wants to believe in magical things. For a short period of our lives trolls, elves and unicorns populate our world. For some people it’s a combination of these creatures, while others are fully invested in one of them. Sophie Johnson, Unicorn Expert is what her business card would say, if six year-olds started carrying them around. What makes this book work is that it goes beyond the imagination of a young child, has fabulous colors and has just a touch of meta to make any kid in that age range enjoy it.

I say ‘any kid’, because unicorns are the divisive stuff of kid lore. Some kids wear their unicorn flag high, others are a bit more covert and some are firmly in camp No Unicorn.  Sophie Johnson, Unicorn Expert is an illustrated book that any kid can enjoy because something in the book can be related to by anyone.

Sophie is a busy kid. She’s got a younger brother who she takes care of, has oodles of stuffed animals (that are her unicorns) and is busy teaching her unicorns about their ways. She’s so busy that she doesn’t realize when a real unicorn comes to her house. Everyone else sees the unicorn, plays with him, has it pop balloons on its horn or alicorn, if you’re down with medieval times.

This is a book about what kids see and how kids think when they use their imagination, even if it’s to their own detriment. Of course, kids won’t see it as a downside, but what they don’t know or acknowledge is something that they never realize that they missed. Sophie doesn’t see the unicorn because she’s so busy playing or pretending that she has unicorns and kids will laugh out loud about this fact.

The art is Sophie Johnson, Unicorn Expert by Ella Okstad perfectly matches the playful, aloof words that Morag Hood has put down. The front cover, with Sophie doing ballet under a sea of reflective glitter is a nice touch that will help draw young readers in also. This is a big, fun, illustrated book that will appeal to kids four through eight, be them unicorn fans or not.