Books like How to Catch a Unicorn
By Adam Wallace
How to Catch a Unicorn turns your kid into an inventor, sketching zany traps and shouting out rhymes right alongside the crew. It's the kind of book that gets read once and then immediately gets a backyard blueprint made in crayon. The books below are for kids still plotting how to catch something magical.
Same rhyming bounce and silly energy, but There's No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System by Tish Rabe points that curiosity at real planets and real facts about space.
Same rhyme-drunk energy, but One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss skips the plot entirely for pure sound and silly counting.
Same bouncy rhyme-chant energy, but Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault is alphabet letters racing up a tree instead of hunters chasing a unicorn.
Your kid who loves rooting for the unicorn will love rooting for grumpy crayons instead in The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt.
No traps, no rhymes even, just you saying ridiculous words out loud. The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak strips the silliness down to its bones.
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson has that same rhyming quest feel, but this time the magical creature is the hero, not the target.
Both ride rhyming persistence and tongue-twisting fun; Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss is longer, built on saying-yes-to-new-things, and works for slightly older or more patient listeners.
Much smaller and calmer than the unicorn chase, but Where's Spot? by Eric Hill keeps the searching-and-finding thrill for the littlest kids.
The rhymes and wonder carry over, but The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson slows down into something quieter and more tender.
Save this for the younger sibling not ready for unicorn traps yet. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is the gentle, chewy warm-up version.
Where the unicorn hunt is eager, The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone flips it: the fun is a character begging your kid to stop.
Reach for The Going To Bed Book by Sandra Boynton once the wild rhyming energy needs to land somewhere soft, right before lights out.
