Title The Very Last Unicorn Series --- Author Maria Conlon-McKenna Illustrated By Chris Coady Publisher Little, Brown and Company - 1994 First Printing Little, Brown and Company - 1994 Category Children Warnings None Main Characters Sam Main Elements Unicorns

It was a cold and snowy day when Sam first saw the unicorn. He ran outside to get closer to the wonderful creatures, and when he did the unicorn spoke. It told Sam that it was the very last of its kind on the earth and that it desperately needed a place where it could feel safe.

Sam comes up with the sorts of ideas a young boy might envision - the zoo, the circus - but the unicorn knows that they won't do. After all it is the very last unicorn and needs a very special safe place.

The simple and perfect solution that Sam eventually decides upon is the culmination of this beautifully illustrated tale.

This is an incredibly beautiful book. The story is simple but the artwork is just gorgeous. Bright colours and yet kind of fuzzy and dreamlike, perfect for a world we are familiar with, but touched with the presence of a unicorn. Too bad so many modern kids books try to be funny or silly or even gross, this is an example of what a kids book should be. It takes the world of a child seriously, touches it with a bit of magic and a bit of sadness, but it ends it with a message of hope and beauty.