Title It's Okay to be a Unicorn Series --- Author Jason Tharp Illustrator Jason Tharp Publisher Imprint - 2020 First Printing Imprint - 2020 Category Children Warnings None Main Characters Cornelius J. Sparklesteed Main Elements Unicorns

Cornelius J. Sparklesteed is known among all the other horses in Hoofington for his beautiful and creative handmade hats. But Cornelius is hiding a secret under his own tall, pointy hat: He's really a unicorn.

Hoofington is a friendly place, but its horses pass on lots of mean rumors about unicorns. When Cornelius is chosen to perform for this year's Hoofapalooza, will he find the courage to show everyone his unicorniness?

Aww, another kids book about unicorns with ugly looking unicorns that could have been drawn by the children in the target age group. Somehow the rest of the scenes are pretty nice, but the unicorns and horses were pretty disappointing.

Now the irony is, I noticed this book is labelled LGBTQ by Goodreads and even that it might have been banned. I mean I know rainbows are an LGBTQ symbol...but the vast majority of unicorn kid books associated rainbows with unicorns too, and we've got a unicorn here. And this is by far not the only book about accepting yourself as you are. There's the Kittycorn series about a cat who wishes he were a unicorn (and the unicorn has a secret desire to be a cat). And so many cliched unicorn = unique stories. An glitter? And crazy outrageous colours and outfits. Have any of the people banning this book even looked at any other kid book about unicorns?

Thus even as an adult I'm having a hard time seeing why this book is considered banned. A kid you have to understand can't pick out the subtle stuff that adults do. I read Narnia as a kid, I NEVER equated Alsan with Jesus...I know *gasp* I must have been a dumb kid thinking he was just a magical lion who could talk. My Sunday school teacher would be so disappointed. A Wrinkle in Time was a favorite, till I re-read it as an adult and it was the bash-you-on-the-head blatant Christianity which sucked all the fun out of it. I totally missed all that as a kid and focused on just the *gaps* science of the teseract. BTW, I grew up into an engineer so maybe I was doomed to miss the point of these books? By the way, don't get wrong, I'm not anti-Christianity, I consider myself a non-practicing Christian, but...as a kid, I didn't notice ANY of this stuff, and give then age group this book is for, being "gay" is not even a concept they have. Even kissing someone of the opposite sex is icky and you might get cooties...

So yeah, this is just a book about being yourself even if people say bad things about your sex, race, gender, religion, hair colour, hobby, fill in your own blank. Well, for what its worth, those book banners made me spend a good 20 minutes more thinking about this book and this review than I otherwise would have given it, so...maybe that backfired a bit. I only would have had the first and last paragraphs to write othewise!

And hey! Here's a book that says unicorns DON'T fart rainbows. Now isn't that progressive!