Title Brave Jack and the Unicorn Series --- Author Janet McNaughton Illustrator Susan Tooke Publisher Tundra Books - 2005 First Printing Tundra Books - 2005 Category Children Warnings None Main Characters Jack, the Princess Main Elements Unicorns, Wizards

Neither handsome nor clever, Jack – the youngest of three brothers – causes his widowed mother much concern. The family is convinced he is nothing but a fool. When his brothers go off to seek their fortune and don’t return, Jack is sent to find them. Along the way he performs good deeds for helpless creatures, who repay his kindness in magical ways.

Hearing of an evil magician who controls the life of the princess, Jack poses as a suitor and faces three tests – but can he find the elusive unicorn and save the princess from her fate?

Acclaimed Newfoundland author Janet McNaughton tells a classic tale of good and evil, accompanied by Susan Tooke’s illuminating paintings, rich with influences from the Middle Ages, Celtic symbolism, and Newfoundland’s breathtaking coastal landscape.

I'll start off by saying that while there is a unicorn and a dragon on the cover, they barely appear in the book.

That said, I still really enjoyed it. Lovely artwork and you can immediately tell that the setting is Newfoundland, though that works well at the start it comes out weird at the end (after all he goes to a castle where there is a King and a Princess...Newfoundland isn't exactly known for its royalty and their fortifications!). This is one of those classic fairy tales where we have a poor farmer's boy who is neither smart nor handsome but he is kind. However the rest of his family scoff at him and when he sets out to find his brothers he encounters various people along the way who he helps and in return they give him magical items that might come in handy later.

When he hears that there is a contest to win a Princess he's pretty sure he'll find his brothers there. Of course all those magical items he picked up along the way come in handy but they still need to defeat the evil wizard who doesn't like the idea that someone could best his impossible challenges and take the princess away from him.

A beautiful, magical tale.