Author: Adam Gidwitz
Illustrator: Hatem Aly
Created By: Jesse Casey, Adam Gidwitz, and Chris Smith
© Date: 2018
Publisher: Dutton Children’s Books
Pages: 163
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, many pages have illustrations
Publisher Recommended Age: 7-10 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No
Summary from Book:
I, Professor Mito Fauna, am the founder of a secret group of adventurers: the Unicorn Rescue Society. We keep the creatures of myth and legend safe. But our enemies are powerful, and ruthless, and we are in desperate need of allies.
Will you help us? Even if it means risking your very life? Will you join the Unicorn Rescue Society?
I hope so. The creatures need you.
~In the Darkest Shadows of New Jersey, there lurks a legendary monster that is fierce, hungry—and obsessed with balloons.~
Elliot Eisner isn’t exactly thrilled with the first day at his new school. His class is going on a field trip to a creepy forest called the Pine Barrens. The trip is being led by Professor Fauna, the weirdest teacher Elliot has ever met. And the only kid who will talk to Elliot, Uchenna Devereaux, isn’t afraid of danger. She likes danger.
Will Elliot and Uchenna face the Creature of teh Pines…and survive? Is Professor Fauna just eccentric, or is he hiding something? And what is the Unicorn Rescue Society? Answers await in the shadows of the pines.
Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this awhile ago.
Page Pig Thoughts: This one was a decent read and got me interested in the history of the New Jersey Pine Barrens and the Jersey Devil. I appreciated that a real place and legend were used in the story because I did not know about them before. That aside, the story of Elliot and Uchenna was a decent adventure with bravery and problem solving. There were some humorous bits mixed into the story. Maybe I will read this one with Page Pup at some point. Until then, I would read another to see where the series goes.
Maybe use caution with a younger or sensitive reader, see Item of Interest 9 below.
Family Unit: Elliot seems to live with his mom and grandma
Items of Interest:
- Elliot is reluctant to get on the school bus because it is his first day of school, but school started three weeks before. Elliot winds up sitting by Uchenna who started last school year after Christmas.
- Humor note – Elliot opts not to sit by the boy who farts in his bus seat. Elliot also opts not to sit next to a girl “digging in her nose like she’d lost something.”
- Elliot is very by the rules. Uchenna is carefree and makes up random songs.
- Elliot says that his teacher looks like a vole and talks like a vole. The teacher at one point mentions that she was in the Marines.
- The class is heading on a field trip on Elliot’s first day of school. The class is given specific instructions to stay with the group and on the trail because scary things live in the Pine Barrens. Elliot and Uchenna hear something growling in the trees. Uchenna walks into the trees to see what made the noise. Elliot reluctantly follows. They find a strange creature (they later learn that it is a supposedly mythical Jersey Devil) wrapped up in some balloon ribbon.
- Uchenna starts stroking the creature to comfort it. Elliot takes the ribbon off the creature. The creature is then angry. Elliot concludes that it must be hungry, so he feeds it a homemade almond and honey bar.
- Elliot and Uchenna catch up with their school group and are scolded for falling behind.
- The class is told the history of the Pine Barrens and how it became a home for people who don’t quite fit in. the Pine Barrens became home for medleys, people with mixed ancestry.
- The class is also told the legend of the Jersey Devil and how it has never been seen, but why the woman telling the story believes that they are real. A story passed down in her family was told about a woman that gave birth to a thirteenth baby that wasn’t a baby at all, but a strange creature.
- The young Jersey Devil flies into the bus window to get more almond bars from Elliot. The creature is hidden away in Uchenna’s backpack so no one else will see him.
- The creature escapes the backpack to chase after some balloons. Elliot and Uchenna need help to catch him again, so they fess up to Professor Fauna about what they have done.
- Professor Fauna helps Elliot and Uchenna look for the creature. He also leads them to sneaking into the greenhouse of the Schmoke brothers who are never to be trusted. The greenhouse is filled with rare and poisonous plants. The Schmoke brothers find the trio.
- The creature lands on the butler’s head. The trio manages to capture him and escape the property. They run down to Professor Fauna’s secret office deep underground below their school.
- Professor Fauna tells Elliot and Uchenna about his secret Unicorn Rescue Society and asks if they would like to join. They agree.
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- Book 2 – The Unicorn Rescue Society: The Basque Dragon
- Book 3 – The Unicorn Rescue Society: Sasquatch and the Muckleshoot
- Book 4 – The Unicorn Rescue Society: The Chupacabras of the Rio Grande
- Book 5 – The Unicorn Rescue Society: The Madre de Aguas of Cuba
- Book 6 – The Unicorn Rescue Society: The Secret of the Himalayas