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The Wrong Side of the Rainbow



Welcome to the special section of the library, where books and other mostly printed media about unicorns are.

I must admit, I didn't have unicorn books when I was a kid. They were just not there. Plenty of mythological creature books where unicorns were included, but not as the main topic as dragon books were. This would change in later years thanks to two events: the unicorn boom in current modern popular culture AND the Save the Unicorns Bundle, presented by Peter S. Beagle.

Speaking of which, there is just no way I can talk about unicorn literature without mentioning the Unicorn Book per Excellence, The Last Unicorn by the aforementioned Peter S. Beagle. Regrettably, up until today, I have not read this book yet, only watched the movie (which has its own section). I want to give it its due time and properly include it in this section, but it's just not there yet. Be patient. I did recently find an audiobook, which might be the kind of format I need nowadays. I'll be back to this section with a full review someday, I promise!

Save the Unicorns Bundle

The Save the Unicorns Bundle was a collection of books about unicorns that got on sale on 2017 and the money obtained from it would go to wildlife charities. I regrettably (once again) did not purchase this bundle due to financial shortcomings, but I took good account of the books included there.

The books included in the bundle were the following:

As you can see, this is a treasure trove of unicorn literature! I'd love to own these books in real life and start a physical library as well, but that will be for a time where I'm financially independent and secure. As for now, I can only hope to find them digitally and also the time to read them.

Unicorn Books for All Ages

While I do regret, I regret a lot not getting this compilation, life wouldn't stop offering me chances to get my hands on unicorn-themed printed media. The explosion of popularity of the unicorn in the New 10's has guaranteed an endless stream of books, mostly oriented to children, but some of them aimed at older audiences.

If I had an euro for everytime I found a small, dark-blue unicorn book with rainbow pages, I'd have two euros. Which is not much, but it's weird that it happened twice.

El Pequeño Libro de los Unicornios: Vive la Magia

El Pequeño Libro de los Unicornios: Vive la Magia (known as Unicornucopia: The Little Book of Unicorns in English) is a poutpourri of unicorn facts, mentions of unicorns in history, unicorns in current modern culture and language, and unicorn-themed recipes, crafts and even spells and those cheesy slogans they love to slap on merch nowadays.

I got some cool facts about unicorns from here (like, I learnt about Lancelot the Unicorn from here!), and if you ever wanted to make rainbow slime, or a rainbow cake, or one of those tiaras with a horn and ears, this is the book for you. It's all in one!

And for those curious, yes, spells! I'm no expert on Wicca or any other modern witchcraft practices, so I will cautiously call them "New Age" because I think that term encapsulates well the candles and crystals experience without adscribing them to a solid religious practice. With this said, the spells in this book are not quite the "light a candle and smack your ass with patchouli on a full moon" kind, they're more about lighting a candle and creating a space for you to reflect on your life, and think of ways to improve your life in different aspects, which, you know? That's something I respect.

Unicorn Your Life

Unicorn Your Life is a compilation of self-help tips for yourself, your relationships, your home and your job, all around the following principles:

  1. Life is inherently magic/beautiful.
  2. It is important to keep an eye on what is beautiful and good from life, because we tend to focus on what is bad and evil.
  3. We should strive not only to appreciate the good and beautiful and magical, but to also create it for ourselves and others.

All accompanied with charming illustrations and funky "unicorn slang": for example, the book refers to you as "you-nicorn", and will translate different parts of your body to horsey terms (feet into hooves, butt into haunches). What is the horn, you ask? Well, according to this book, the horn is the core of who you really are. Your soul, if you will. Other "unicorn slang" includes referring to negative people as ogres and trolls (apart from other fantastical beasts of toil and trouble), interpreting money as "gold", and overall lowkey treating life like a fantasy LARP.

While the unicorn slang and lowkey New Age things here and there might put off readers, I must say I do agree with the core philosophy of this book, and its small size and portability allows me to carry with me a little "tome of magic" with me wherever I go. I use the term "magic" liberally to describe art, lucky accidents, craftsmanship, positive and extraordinary things out of the routine, and overall all sorts of good things partially because of this book. It's a bit like the Law of Attraction: if you're interested in X, soon you will find more of X. That, but combined with "Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

What I'm trying to say is, in an overly negative world, filled with people and media and messages and news that tell you you're living in a dying, wretched world that cannot redeem itself; in a world where positivity is branded as a tool so you spend your life rat racing and wage slaving for people who don't see you as a fellow human being, but as a tool for their means; a world that mocks and devaluates genuine human nature and connection, it's important to see what is good in the world, to know you can make things better even if it's just in small ways, to be able to make your life enjoyable, and one worth living, for yourself and the people you love. Bad things have always existed, and will always exist, but that should never smother the good things that do exist, either born from the chaotic miracle of life and existence... or by your own hand.

Unicorn books for children

...Oops, I think I rambled too hard on this one. Got kinda bohemian and everything. Let's wrap up this section with more lighthearted stuff, okay?

Mystery Unicorn Children's Book

Usually, I'm not very interested in children's books about unicorns, mostly because they do not have any significant substance for someone like me. However, one day, I spotted this book on the shelf of one of those "all-in-one" marts, a hypermarket if you will. I perused it and got surprised at the "lore" made up for unicorns. This ain't no Game of Thrones, but remember: Children's books don't often go deeper than "unicorns are magical horses and have other magical friends". I did not buy it, because I wanted it to fulfill its purpose of sparking the imagination of a future generation, but I did take pictures of it. Hey, I wasn't its target audience anyway. I didn't even get the title of the book.

Click here to check the book! It comes with translations, made by yours truly

UNICORNS
Unicorns are horse-shaped beautiful creatures with a horn that spirals from the center of their forehead. They say it has magic powers.
Unicorns are children of the stars.

FAIRIES
Did you know there are fairies that are tasked with taking care of the unicorns?. Fairies can communicate with them with their mind, and only they are able to ride on the unicorns, holding on to their manes.

DID YOU KNOW...? Fairies are the ones who paint the unicorns' hooves.


ALMOST ETERNAL
Unicorns can live up to one thousand years.. They say they do this thanks to the magic of their horns, which protects them from all illnesses.
Unicorns live in enchanted forests, where there are springs and beautiful waterfalls with clear waters, and centenary trees that help them live longer.


WHAT DO THEY EAT?
Unicorns eat exotic fruits, berries and flowers that grow on enchanted forests. They tend to eat once a day, and always at sunset. Their friends, the funny little elves! are the ones who gather and prepare their food, since they are the ones who have the book with the magic recipes.


POWERS
Their horn can protect humans from any poison and heal wounds with a single touch.
If an unicorn loses its horn, it will also lose its powers. If it wants to get them back, it must wait until the rainbow appears on the sky. Then, galloping on it, it must reach the forest where the magic flower grows, and eat it. This way, its horn will grow back, with the same powers as before.

DID YOU KNOW...?Unicorns born in starry nights with a full moon can fly, because they transform into "winged unicorns".


WATER
Forests where unicorns live always have magic water which is actually tiny stars that, by falling through waterfalls, become pure, crystal clear water. If unicorns drink water from regular rivers and larkes, they could lose their magic horn and turn into regular horses.


ENEMIES
Unicorns have enemies too: the ogres. Ogres are ugly, nasty beings whose favourite pastime is destroying everything that's beautiful and pure. Riding on their dragons, they spit fire and look for unicorns to steal their magic horns, and use their powers for evil.

DID YOU KNOW...?One of every ten unicorns is born with a colorful mane and tail, which is known as a "rainbow unicorn".


Unicorn Universe Magazine

And while I'm still not clearly its target audience, here is one piece of kid-oriented unicorn media I do own: a few samples of Unicorn Universe, an UK monthly magazine filled with puzzles, activities, stories, crafts and recipes, all themed around unicorns and especially the magazine's own mascot characters.

I must admit, I have a soft spot for two things here: the ephemereal nature of children's magazines (once it's out of print, it's gone forever, and the magazine encourages getting painted all over and cut into pieces) and the incredibly lovely art style of the unicorn mascots. It's very rare to see a drawing of an unicorn nowadays that doesn't have a tiny button nose that barely counts as a muzzle. Of course, a real horse can be even nose-ier, but I think this is as good as an equine drawing meant to be cute and girly can get. I also love all the poses, situations and outfits they give to the unicorns, they look very cool.