Published: 17 September 2024
Publisher: Page Street Kids
Illustrator: Jenny Alvarado
Pages: 40
Format: Picture Book
★ ★ ★ – 3.5 Stars
While unicorns usually shimmer and sparkle in the spotlight, Unicorn longs for fame of another kind: he wants to be a cool, case-crackin’ undercover agent, just like his hero, Agent Sparrow. And he’s finally gotten his big break ― a job at Agent Goat’s Detective Agency! True, he might be sweeping the floors for now, but it’s one step closer to his dream.
When Unicorn intercepts the case of a missing pet bird, he leaps into action! This is his moment to shine ― or, erm, sneak. He’s sure he’s ready to be a detective even though he has no actual experience. With the best disguises and coolest gadgets, how hard can it be?
But before long, he’ll discover that there’s more to being an agent than sneaky moves and looking cool.
There’s a lot to piece together initially as there isn’t a story structure in the traditional sense. You pick up a lot of clues from the illustrations and the scattered thought bubbles from our main character in the beginning before it falls into a solid narrative.
Once it gets going though it is a fun story. Our unicorn dreams of being an agent and after meagre beginnings soon lets their imagination run away with them and they start to imagine what their life would be as an agent.
The little bits of real life that slip into the daydream are funny and I love the way the format works alongside the text. It’s like a comic book and old noir film at the same time, but with bright colours and cute animals.
Alvarado’s illustrations are fun and full of colour. The humour comes through in both Unicorn’s narration and in the illustrations; the tiny details adding those extra elements of fun.
There are a few grounding moments and it was fun to see unicorn have grand dreams. It’s clearly a detective heavy universe with an agency to work at as well as a movie star to idolise so it helps that there are many things that go missing.
You can purchase Agent Unicorn via the following
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