Title The Tale of the Unicorn Series --- Author Otfried Preußler Illustrator Gennady Spirin Publisher Dial Books - 1989 First Printing 1988 Category Children Warnings None Main Characters --- Main Elements Unicorns

Once there was a unicorn that had a horn of ivory, hooves of pure gold, and a diamond star on its brow. Three brothers set out to capture it and so to make their fortunes. The hunt began, but by and by the two oldest dropped out and only the youngest one was left. He carried on the search for many years, enduring trials by fire and ice and darkness, and when he discovered the unicorn at last he found himself enriched in ways he never could have imagined.

This lovely fable about the world's most magical beast is spectacularly illustrated by the brilliant Soviet painter Gennady Spirin. Readers of all ages will gasp with delight at the exquisite beauty of the pictures and will want to return to thise tale of wonder again and again.

A beautiful book with wonderful illustrations. This is a tale of three brothers, one fat, one skinny, and one the youngest, that set out to hunt the unicorn. But along the way the brothers find other things to tempt them, so it is but the youngest who goes through fire, and water, and ice, and night to find the at last the unicorn. But it was so beautiful he could not bring himself to pull the trigger, but he did not return home empty handed, for the children loved to hear his tale of his adventure and the creature he found at the end. Told in the form of a true fairy tale, it reminds me of how so many of the more recent books about unicorns are silly instead of magical, as if children can only understand primary colours and crude drawings instead of gorgeous sepia tones and detail in every corner of the page, a work of art that could be hung on a wall in a museum.