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A review by phyrre
A Unicorn Named Rin by Crystal Z. Lee
4.0
You can find my full review on my blog, The Bookwyrm's Den, here.
Many thanks to Balestier and Turn the Page Tours for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
Minion's Thoughts:
My 10-year-old actually reviewed this one for my blog, so I'm going to post her review here:
I gave this book four unicorn horns because it didn’t have a whole lot of detail and there wasn’t very much going on, so it’s maybe better for littler kids. Where there was some things going on, it was pretty good. I liked all the animals and the way they did human things. I liked all the pictures of animals and what they looked like. They weren’t like other animals I’ve seen before in books. They were different colors and drawn differently.
About the Book:
A Unicorn Named Rin is about a phoenix that went missing, and a qilin, a chinese unicorn, named Rin that was the fastest flying unicorn in China had to go find the phoenix with some help from their friends. Rin meets lots of different animals along the way like a turtle, phoenix, and tiger that help them on their quest.
Five Things I Liked:
- All the different animals in the book.
- That all the animals could sing and the singing made the phoenix be able to find its way back.
- That the unicorn was sent to find the phoenix because it was the fastest flying unicorn in China.
- That all the animals could do things that only people could do like talk and read.
- I liked that the book told the name of the unicorn and where Rin lived.
My Thoughts:
In case you couldn’t tell … unicorns are kind of Minion’s thing. There seems to be a rush lately of unicorn books. Certainly, there’s been a major influx of them at the library I work at, as more and more readers seem to be picking them up. What these unicorn books don’t have, unfortunately, is diversity. Almost none at all. So imagine my excitement to have stumbled upon A Unicorn Named Rin, which not only has a unique Chinese unicorn (a.k.a. a qilin) but is set in China with very unique Chinese-inspired illustrations and some lesser-seen animals!
I highly recommend this one for readers who enjoy unicorns but want a little included diversity in there, too. I, for one, am tired of the same old unicorn stories. So yes to being set in China. Yes to all the Chinese culture (including language!) thrown into the book in an easy-to-understand way. I think it’s important for young readers to understand that the concepts they love (like unicorns, for example) aren’t just American or Western concepts and there are other beliefs out there.
There’s even a glossary in the back that explains the locations mentioned in the book and how they exist in real life. It also explains a little about the significance of the animals that appear in the book, which was also nice. It’s a fun story filled with unique animals and friendship that I think will be a winner for young readers, especially those who already love unicorns. This is probably a sort of unicorn story they haven’t seen yet.
Many thanks to Balestier and Turn the Page Tours for a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
Minion's Thoughts:
My 10-year-old actually reviewed this one for my blog, so I'm going to post her review here:
I gave this book four unicorn horns because it didn’t have a whole lot of detail and there wasn’t very much going on, so it’s maybe better for littler kids. Where there was some things going on, it was pretty good. I liked all the animals and the way they did human things. I liked all the pictures of animals and what they looked like. They weren’t like other animals I’ve seen before in books. They were different colors and drawn differently.
About the Book:
A Unicorn Named Rin is about a phoenix that went missing, and a qilin, a chinese unicorn, named Rin that was the fastest flying unicorn in China had to go find the phoenix with some help from their friends. Rin meets lots of different animals along the way like a turtle, phoenix, and tiger that help them on their quest.
Five Things I Liked:
- All the different animals in the book.
- That all the animals could sing and the singing made the phoenix be able to find its way back.
- That the unicorn was sent to find the phoenix because it was the fastest flying unicorn in China.
- That all the animals could do things that only people could do like talk and read.
- I liked that the book told the name of the unicorn and where Rin lived.
My Thoughts:
In case you couldn’t tell … unicorns are kind of Minion’s thing. There seems to be a rush lately of unicorn books. Certainly, there’s been a major influx of them at the library I work at, as more and more readers seem to be picking them up. What these unicorn books don’t have, unfortunately, is diversity. Almost none at all. So imagine my excitement to have stumbled upon A Unicorn Named Rin, which not only has a unique Chinese unicorn (a.k.a. a qilin) but is set in China with very unique Chinese-inspired illustrations and some lesser-seen animals!
I highly recommend this one for readers who enjoy unicorns but want a little included diversity in there, too. I, for one, am tired of the same old unicorn stories. So yes to being set in China. Yes to all the Chinese culture (including language!) thrown into the book in an easy-to-understand way. I think it’s important for young readers to understand that the concepts they love (like unicorns, for example) aren’t just American or Western concepts and there are other beliefs out there.
There’s even a glossary in the back that explains the locations mentioned in the book and how they exist in real life. It also explains a little about the significance of the animals that appear in the book, which was also nice. It’s a fun story filled with unique animals and friendship that I think will be a winner for young readers, especially those who already love unicorns. This is probably a sort of unicorn story they haven’t seen yet.