Author: Andi Watson
Illustrator: Andi Watson
© Date: 2023
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pages: 223
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, graphic novel
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No
Summary from Book: Carbuncle is a land of endless rainbows and sugar-sprinkled doughnuts–until the vile Sir Ogre unleashes his evil army on the happy kingdom. Who can stop his outsize appetite for destruction? Punycorn! Who? Punycorn. The smallest, clumsiest, and, yes, puniest of all the unicorns. Punycorn may not look like a hero, but aided by a motley crew of misfits, he may be Carbuncle’s only hope!
Page Pig Thoughts: Hooray for Punycorn and a group of unlikely heroes saving the day! Or at least helping out mine, I needed something a little silly and Punycorn delivered. This story has an interesting contrast of lightheartedness with powerful mittens and an endless condiment supply versus the backdrop of fires, injured villagers, and destruction of the land. Punycorn was willing to do what is necessary to save Carbuncle, including kill Sir Ogre’s thugs. I don’t always associate cute, upbeat, cartoony characters with that level of willingness, but it did provide a humorous moment with Bloodgutter the sword. Overall, I enjoyed this story and the silly parts, but the destruction and marauding should be considered for a younger or sensitive reader.
Family Unit:
- Punycorn lives in the Uni Palace with the other unicorns.
- Sir Ogre lives in the Bastion of Evil with his mother and sister, Sixsmith.
- Wheeze, the dragon, feels guilty about losing his family’s hoard, so he doesn’t want to go home until he’s found the treasure.
- P’oo, the Dung Elemental, has been roaming the land since his family’s midden heap was tipped into a tar pit by Sir Ogre’s thugs.
Conflict/Social Issues:
- All of the unicorns form an elite troop of heroic unicorns called the Chosen Ones. Punycorn is a trainee cadet. Punycorn has been polishing trophies, doing laundry, and cleaning up after the Chosen Ones. Even after Punycorn saves Carbuncle, the Chosen Ones won’t even listen to his story and tell him that laundry needs to be done.
- Sir Ogre is full of himself and believes that his sister is beneath him.
- Sir Ogre forms an army and commands them to raze forests, burn the lands, poison the lands, stomp out flowers, and destroy the land.
- Sir Ogre’s thugs tipped P’oo’s family midden heap into a tar pit, so P’oo has been searching for a new home with the remains of the heap.
Positive Items:
- Punycorn has the heart of a hero, and is constantly following a belief that things will work out.
- Bloodgutter the sword shows that a pacifist can save the day, no blood needs to be spilled.
- Wheeze and P’oo show how good it feels to be included in a group.
- The Kinship shows the power of friendship helping through troubling times.
- Sixsmith stands up for herself and doesn’t let Sir Ogre boss her around.
Items of Interest:
- Sir Ogre’s mother knits him Gauntlets of Ultimate Victory that attract evil beings and master Mystical Fire from the sky. They look a lot like mittens.
- The Chosen Ones unicorn team leave on a team building trip, but leave Punycorn behind to battle the evils of grime, grease, and slime. Yes, they leave a list of chores for Punycorn. And yes, they come back with suntans.
- Wheeze the dragon is allergic to everything.
- Wheeze feels honored to be friends with Punycorn and agrees to be a Stalwart Companion…whatever stalwart means…
- Punycorn and Wheeze walk through an area where everything is on fire and the villagers are bandaged and hobbling on crutches, they tell Punycorn and Wheeze to turn back.
- Punycorn found a magic blade (aka sword) named Bloodgutter in the magical item landfill. Bloodgutter has been with many heroes “as their life’s blood has drained away,” and took a vow to “never again draw blood and lead another brave soul to their doom.”
- Wheeze takes Dijon’s Bracer of Everlasting Condiments from the magic item landfill, it is an arm sleeve with a button that shoots out all kinds of condiments with an everlasting supply.
- P’oo the Dung Elemental is honored to join Punycorn’s kinship because no one has ever invited P’oo to join anything before, people don’t want to be around P’oo.
- Punycorn was willing to run through an enemy with Bloodgutter the sword, but the sword crumpled and that didn’t happen.
- Sir Ogre makes himself a throne out of skulls and wants the Bleak Peaks to be carved into a monument of his head.
- Wheeze the dragon had not been able to breathe fire. Near the end of the book when things are looking grim, Wheeze finds his fire breathing ability thanks to some soy sauce.
- Bloodgutter gets broken in half in a moment of glory breaking a string…um…chain mail…on Sir Ogre’s gauntlets. Sir Ogre’s thick fingers aren’t able to tie the mitten…um..gauntlet…string. Since Sir Ogre’s ego chased off his sister, he doesn’t have anyone to help him fix his gauntlets.
- While Sir Ogre threatens a lot of terrible things on creatures, no blood is drawn. Some creatures get tossed around, injured villagers are wandering around, Sir Ogre shoots lightning from the sky using the power of his gauntlets, and Sir Ogre gets run over by a giant boulder, but no blood.
- The villagers celebrate Punycorn and the Kinship, which offsets the Chosen Ones returning and not caring about Punycorn’s stories.
- Sir Ogre is left taking several baths while trying to reknit his gauntlets, Sixsmith messes with his mind about needing behind his ears scrubbed.
- Punycorn just goes back to doing laundry and cleaning up after the other unicorns. Sure, Punycorn has friends for company now, but saving Carbuncle did not change the routine.
- Not sure if it is purposeful, but I didn’t see any gender mentions of anyone besides Sir Ogre, Sixsmith, and their mother.