Title Blizzard of the Blue Moon Series Magic Tree House #36 Author Mary Pope Osborner Illustrator Sal Murdocca Publisher Random House - 2006 First Printing Random House - 2006 Category Children Warnings None Main Characters Jack, Annie Main Elements Unicorns, wizards

Jack and Annie are off on another Merlin Mission. This time, Merlin has sent them to rescue a beautiful magical creature—the unicorn. But when they land in New York City during the Depression of the 1930s, Jack and Annie are confused. Where will they find a unicorn in a big city?

I haven't read any of ther other Magic Tree House books, and given this is #36 I assumed the reader should be well acquainted with the main characters. But this being a simple middle grade book I had no trouble figuring out what was going on. We have Jack and Annie who work for Merlin going on missions. In this book, they head off to find a unicorn that had been trapped for centuries and was time to set him free. Problem is, they don't know where he is. They try their hardest to get to the zoo, after all where else would you find an ensorcelled unicorn on display in New York? But if you know your unicorn lore, you might guess where this unicorn is actually hiding.

But they are not alone in wanting to find the unicorn, but with the help from some friends and a few magic spells, Jack and Annie solve the riddle while along the way learning about New York in the Great Depression. I like how this book is not simply a story, but it tries to teach a little history and culture too. I don't know if I'll read more books in this series, I specifically picked this one because I'm trying to read as many unicorn books as I can this year, the stories are a little too simple for my *cough* age group. But I highly recommend it to both boys and girls in elementary school. And with so many books in the series I know I would have loved reading them all!