Title Here There Be Unicorns Series Here There Be... Author Jane Yolen Cover Art David Wilgus Publisher Harcourt Brace & Company - 1994 First Printing Harcourt Brace & Company - 1994 Category Anthology Warnings None Main Characters See below Main Elements Unicorns

Jane Yolen captures the spectacular beauty, power, and quintessential goodness of this mythical beast in her new collection, Here There Be Unicorns. In stories and poems with both contemporary and medieval settings, traditional unicorn lore is seamlessly woven together with the author's own spectacular imaginings. We learn of the fabled healing power of the horn the unicorn's ability to cleanse water, how to capture a unicorn - and why this magnificent creature has such a hold on our imagination to this day.

Beautifully illustrated by David Wilgus' duotone pencil drawings, each piece is also prefaced by an author's note, where the reader learns Jane Yolen's thoughts on writing, unicorns, and the nature of myth.

Here There Be Unicorns is a beautiful companion volume to Jane Yolen's previous collection, Here There Be Dragons, and a perfect gift for fantasy lovers.

• The Making of a Unicorn
• Unicorn Tapestry
• The Death of the Unicorn
• An Infestation of Unicorns
• The Lady's Garden
• The Hunting of the Narwhale
• The Boy Who Drew Unicorns
• The Promise
• The Hunt
• The Unicorn Leaves
• De Natura Unicorni
• The Unicorn's Pool
• The Unicorn and the Pool
• A Visitor's Account
• The Healing Horn
• Rhinoceros
• Li Po and the Unicorn
• Fossils

While I absolutely loved the first collection about dragons, somehow I was disappointed by this collection of unicorns. While I liked reading about Yolen's inspiration for each story, and how she drew on folklore and myth (and I've got Shepard's Lore of the Unicorn on my to read list for this year) somehow I wasn't particulary drawn into the stories she wrote. I think I expected something more magical, more lyrical, than what I found. It wasn't that any of them were particularly bad (though I feel in a unicorn collection a poems about Rhinceros and Narwhale are cheating, I get the connection but they aren't even treated as mistaken identities) I just didn't love most of them.

On the other hand I did like the variety. We have the asian Ki'lin in "Li Po and the Unicorn", and in "An Infestation of Unicorns" they are presented as a pest rather than a glorious creature. We have stories about the power of belief in healing, we have classic hunt stories, and I particularly liked "The Unicorn and the Pool" that is more fable than story.

The artwork by Wilgus continued to be enchanting, I love the fact that they are without colour, just shades of pencil grey, which enhances the work rather than takes away from it.

I'm pretty sure, that as a kid, I'd have loved this anthology more. Perhaps it is because I've already so many unicorn books, and also the dragon collection, that I've got a higher standard that I'm comparing this book too. No matter what, I'm glad I found this book in a used bookstore and I've added it to my collection. I don't think a unicorn lover should be without this classic.