Title Unicorns and Other Magical Creatures Series Fantasy and Folklore Author John Hamilton Cover Art Don Maitz Publisher ABDO & Daughters - 2004 First Printing ABDO & Daughters - 2004 Category Children / Reference Warnings None Main Characters --- Main Elements Unicorns

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This book had a very amateur feel for it, I guess mainly because I recognize the Don Maitz image on the cover and my first reaction was did the author of this book just download that picture off the internet (it's everywhere, in fact the story behind that painting is that the original was stolen so this picture in particular stuck in my head), though I'll go under the assumption that all copyright rules were followed in the production of this book. None of the art was commissioned specifically for the book.

On the other hand, the content wasn't all that bad, on par with other unicorn reference books directed towards this age group. I found it a bit weird to have mermaids and griffins included, since unicorns have enough lore on their own to fill a full book, though including pegasus at the end made sense as it kept to the equine theme. Could have done a page on hippocampus instead of mermaids, especially considering one image included in the mermaid section was a fish-tailed horse.

There were also errors in the content, there never was a live-action The Last Unicorn movie made (trust me, I was so excited when I heard about it back in early 2000 and was following up on it) but it never got made. The author jumped the gun and documented a rumour but his book was published before the so-called movie came out so now the book has a permanent error in it. Also to include Harry Potter as an example of a unicorn book was a bit odd (yes, there is the one scene in the first book) when there are so many books actually dedicated to unicorns out there. But then Harry was extremely popular then.

I have to admit I was very surprised that my library would have such a hardcover book which looks and feels like something you'd expect from an indie ebook you might download for free. It's not terrible, and the pictures are nice (Don Maitz, Janny Wurtz) but it certainly doesn't feel professionally made. It doesn't even have a list of refrences or a bibliography for further reading.