review
Emmi is nearly ten and her life is about to change for ever. Because in her world, everyone gets a unique creature for their tenth birthday that stays with them for the rest of their life. Her father has a friendly fire-breathing dragon, her mother has a sparrow with the ability to see through walls, her sister has a big, furry cat and Antonia, the cool girl of the school, has a river mermaid. Emmi is convinced that she is going to get a fabulously brilliant unicorn as her creature. The story follows Emmi’s disappointment that her creature is not the yearned-for unicorn, but in fact a unipig – a magical pig-like creature with a golden horn on its forehead.
The book examines Emmi’s relationships with her family and at school, where she is experiencing a particularly torrid time, being bullied by Antonia and her gang. The major themes of the book are dealing with disappointment, betrayal, buying friendships and how lying just leads to more lies. Anna Böhm addresses these issues with great humour, ensuring that the ‘baddies’ get their comeuppance and that there is a happy ending, affirming the book’s central message: Be happy with who you are!
All recommendations from Spring 2018