Elayne thinks the old family story that one of her ancestors stepped through a tapestry into a world of mythical beasts makes a great fireside tale. But she lives in the real world. In New York City. And she's outgrown that kind of fantasy.

    Until she finds herself in front of a unicorn tapestry at the Cloisters museum and sees her initials woven into the fabric. And hears a unicorn calling to her. And slips and falls—into that other world.

    Suddenly the line between fantasy and reality isn't so clear. But the danger is real enough. Almost before she can think, Elayne is attacked by a ferocious beast, rescued by a unicorn, and taken prisoner by a tyrant king. Each of them seems to have an idea about her—that she's a hero, a villain, dinner!

    But Elayne has a few ideas of her own. She wants to overthrow the king; she wants to tame the unicorn. She wants to go home! And she's willing to become both hero and villain to do it.

From the tale...

    He dropped to his knees before her. Lowered his head, the horn passing in front of her face, so close she could see its spiral grooves. She blinked, scarcely breathing, bracing for the huge weight that was to come. But when his muzzle touched her, running from her shoulder down to her hip, she was amazed at how gentle he was, how light. She almost laughed when one velvet ear flicked at her neck. Until the veil of eyelashes slowly opened – and she was staring into his eye.

It had dazzled her from afar. She had seen universes there. She’d undersold it.

It was like no blue she’d ever seen. No single shade could sum it up. Layers of blue, from darkest midnight to the most violet of dawns. Swimming with stars, galaxies dancing over the void, spirals of nebulae like the spirals of a horn, twisting through the heavens. Everything spun out from the center, from the globe of the pupil, which seemed black until she looked closer. Until she saw that it too was bottomless. Until she began to fall through its depths.

“Ahhh!” Elayne’s sigh was long, and his head rose and fell so gently with her breath. She didn’t know if she was meant to do anything. She wouldn’t have known what. All she could do, she did, staring into infinity.

‘The Land of the Fabulous Beast is, in a word, fabulous, a place where all the creatures dreamed up by various cultures are portrayed in all their glory... Hand this to readers who like their heroines sassy and their settings vividly imagined.’

                     - Bulletin of the Centre of Children’s Books -

‘The Hunt of the Unicorn is one of the best fantasy books for young adult readers to be written in the last few years. It has a good story with the fast plot typical of an adventure. By weaving historical elements into the modern world, the author has created a parallel world of wondrous beasts such as the types that would be found in a medieval bestiary.’

                    - Janet Johnson, Manitoba Library Journal-

Click HERE to visit my photo album: ‘Hunting the Unicorn’

LINKS! LINKS!! LINKS!!! Click HERE to go to a page full of links to help you explore the wonderful world of the Unicorn!

‘Like as a Lyon, whose imperial power

A prowd rebellious Unicorn defies.’

      - Edmund Spencer, The Fairie Queen -

Podcasts!

You can listen to my journey in search of the Unicorn as well as read about it. Just play the audio links below.