A Review of the ``Phoebe and Her Unicorn'' Book Series by Dana Simpson

Given my fixation on classical unicorns, I decided to start reading this childrens' book series, and
I've not been disappointed.  I don't consider it to be childish; it has a similar feeling to reading
``Peanuts'' by Charles Schulz.  It's a delightfully witty set of comics which has so entertained me.

It may apparently be read from this page: https://www.gocomics.com/phoebe-and-her-unicorn/2012/01/15

The story naturally concerns a young girl, who is named Phoebe, and that unicorn whom she befriends,
who is named Marigold Heavenly Nostrils.  When skipping rocks, Phoebe strikes Marigold, who was lost
in admiring her reflection; Marigold offers unto Phoebe a wish; that wish is for them to be friends.

I read the series in the coloured and bound volumes, and have read but the first seven at this time.

That first volume slowly increases the complexity of their relationship.  A plot device which allows
for storylines outside of the forests is ``The Shield of Boringness'', which has an obvious utility.
Some of the jokes can be more childish than others, but I don't recall a single joke falling flat in
that first volume.  Some of the wordbuilding can be silly, but the verisimilitude generally remains.

Marigold is a delightfully narcissistic character, in too many ways to mention; many jokes are based
around this narcissism, with her using her status as a unicorn to win arguments and do silly things.
Peter S. Beagle even remarked on it, with his words serving as the introduction to the first volume.
Lauren Faust wrote the introduction for the second volume; with good reason, the series has garnered
good attention, from those who have worked on stories with unicorns, and from those who admire them.

Over time, additional human characters are added, who befriend additional supernatural characters; I
found this to be a perfectly natural way for expanding the complexity of the storytelling over time.

If I must have one pedantic criticism, the Latin shown in the first volume for ``heavenly nostrils''
is CAELESTIS NARIBVS, but should be CAELESTES NARES, although it certainly doesn't look as cool.  It
may be part of the joke, as Phoebe is asked whether she knows Latin or not to answer: ``I don't have
to know anything.  I have a phone.''  There's a bunch of this style of humour which should appeal to
one with a programmers view of the world, regarding the latest popular technologies and such things.

There's one detail, in the sixth volume, which gave me pause, but it's not particularly egregious; I
can easily recommend this series to readers, of most any age, and believe they will likely enjoy it.

I've read there may be an animated cartoon made of the comics at some future time, and that could be
quite nice, if it gets the effort and resources it deserves; I should expand this review, but later.
.