Most people are struck by the idea of the unicorn: its imagery, its meaning and its origins. Unfortunately in present times the striking and semi-dangerous idea of a horned, goat-legged, lion-tailed creature has been reduced to a sugary-sweet horsy (usually portrayed in various shades of pink or purple).

Jane Yolen and Ruth Sanderson attempt to answer the question of where these animals disappeared to. The most popular story of where these creatures went to is found within the children's song, which tells how the unicorns were to proud to enter Noah's Ark and subsequently died. Legend tells that they went on to become the horned narwhal of the Artic Seas.

Yolen and Sanderson keep the motif of the sea, but bring in a more contemporary theme of pollution and environmental destruction. For this reason, the unicorns travel to the ocean and merge with the water.

It is a simple, but evocative story set in rhyme and illustrated by the wonderful Sanderson, who beautifully meld the figures of the unicorns with the facets of water: waves, foam, spray, and droplets. Though she does not *quite* portray the quintessential unicorn, this is a wonderful book: dreamy, poetic, and bittersweet.

I read 373 books to my children this past summer...this was the most beautiful one of them all! The illustrations, the poetry, the deep and wonderous messages buried in the words are a rare find.

Beautiful, beautiful pictures and a nice retelling of the Unicorn legend. But... The book is worth the pictures alone.

The pictures alone could tell the story in this incredibly illustrated story for children of all ages. If your children do not already have a wonder for Unicorns and their mystical beauty, they will. It will make your childs imagination run wild everytime they look at the ocean. There is nothing better then reading a story to your children that you can both appreciate. I fell in love with it the first page I turned.