A Good Team

Unicorn and Yeti #2

by Heather Ayris Burnell, Hazel Quintanilla (Illustrator)

Magical friends Unicorn and Yeti love to play games.

Yeti is good at kicking the ball.
Unicorn cannot kick the ball.

Unicorn is good at running races.
Yeti cannot run fast.

Unicorn and Yeti play ring toss, run a race, and go ice skating.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Unicorns, Fantasy, Fiction, Friendship

64 pages, Library Binding

First published June 25, 2019

About the author

Heather Ayris Burnell has lived on a snowy mountaintop. She loves
anything with rainbow sprinkles on it. And although she cannot do magic,
she knows that reading is magical! Heather hopes that the Unicorn and
Yeti books will inspire readers to be a friend to others, no matter how
different they may be from themselves.

Unicorn and Yeti: Sparkly New Friends was named a Best Children's Book of 2019 by Parents Magazine.

Reviews

[Jen]

I liked the focus on teamwork and doing things together and modifying a game if it didn’t work for one of the people playing. Cute little book that I think beginner readers would enjoy. 3.5 stars, rounded to 4, because SPARKLY UNICORN, lol!

[Barbara]

Sometimes you just have to read about the things you love. Magical character lovers will appreciate Unicorn and Yeti: A Good Team by Burnell and Quintanilla. Simple sentences accompany incredibly colorful illustrations in this book that is similar to a very elementary graphic novel. Repetitive words and phrases will support learning new words in this unique story for beginning readers age 5 - 8.

[Heidi]

This delightful addition to Scholastic's new Unicorn and Yeti series lets readers see the ins and outs of a rather unusual friendship. Unicorn and Yeti enjoy different activities but want to share their fun with each other. The problem is that what works for Yeti, doesn't necessarily work really well for Unicorn. For example, Yeti likes throwing a ball, but Unicorn has a hard time catching it until it gets stuck on her horn. How can they enjoy the same activities when their abilities are so very different? It was fun to read about how they compromised an found new activities to do together in order to make their playing together work. The illustrations are bright and colorful. A real winner of a series.

[Bonnie Grover]

Unicorn and Yeti is an early reader that could teach us all some great lessons. Young Ss will watch these two learn about perseverance, good sportsmanship, empathy, and friendship. I know some kids who are going to fall in love with Unicorn and Yeti.

[Margie]

A cute story for children just learning to read.

[Kayla]

Solid for an early reader book. Feels like a graphic novel for younger kiddos.

[Arianna]

it was kind of short

[Joanne Roberts]

This is pretty much the same as my review of Unicorn and Yeti Sparkly New Friends. I think the humor in A Good Team was funnier than book 1, but maybe the art style let it down a little. The illustrator makes good use of the space in each panel, but misses some opportunities because of the limiting character design.

I didn't mention it in the first book's review, but I love the activity page stuck at the end of the book and I think kid readers will too.

Again, this probably should have garnered five stars at the time of this review. The author deserves it. Her concept and the presentation, as well as the niche the Unicorn and Yeti series fills, really ought to supply the missing stars. The idea of a graphic novel series for the very youngest readers with sparkly, friendly, huggable, license-worthy characters and a dash of humor is brilliant. The illustrator created hip, character design right on target for today's tastes. This book did exactly what it was supposed to do. It deserves praise and notice for being the right book at the right time.

But I think we should set the bar higher. I would have loved to see better use of the comic style and more expressive expressions and poses. I don't blame the illustrator or publisher. They know their target audience and its buyers well. It was a fun read. But personally, I want more for my kids. More Little Mermaid and less American Tail. More Dexter's Laboratory and less Sponge Bob. More Klaus, less Secret Life of Pets. Know what I mean?

If you have a kid in this age range, by all means, go buy all the books in this series. They will love you for it. But I'm not expecting them to hide these books in their luggage when they go off to college.

[Jenn]

Magical heir to Elephant and Piggie.

[Becky]

First sentence: Unicorn saw Yeti kick the ball.



Premise/plot: The first book in the series is Sparkly New Friends. This second book features three more adventures: "The Ball," "A Race," and "On Ice." In chapter one, the two friends TRY to play ball together. But can unicorn catch and throw a ball?! In chapter two, the two friends race each other. But can Yeti run as fast as unicorn? In chapter three, the two friends go ice skating--a new activity for both of them. Can unicorn ice skate? How about Yeti?


My thoughts: I enjoyed this one. I don't know if my favorite story was the one about playing ball or ice skating. But it definitely was not the racing one. Still two out of three isn't bad when it comes to stories. I don't know that I love this series enough to want there to be thirty books in the series....but I wouldn't mind a few more.

[zapkode]

{My thoughts} – Unicorn and Yeti enjoy playing games with one another. In this book they play play ball, which turns into ring toss, they race and they ice skate. They have a lot of fun together and learn that not everyone can do the same things in the same way, or the same things period.

The text in this book goes hand and hand with the illustrations. The illustrations help to tell a more in depth story about what is going on within the book. I really enjoy books that are written in a beginner graphic novel type style for younger children. I strongly believe that books like this have the potential to help keep children interested in reading in the future! I look forward to reading more books in this series soon.

[Stephanie]

BCFL Checkout (Warminster).

Second read was me - I read to make sure it was appropriate.

[Stevie Thomas]

I love these little books!

[Lisa McKenzie]

Kid Reviews:
5yo: What makes unicorn and yeti a good team? Find out in this book!
9yo: Can unicorn skate and do a run, push, roll, roar, race and play with a ball? Find out in this book!

[Becky B]

Unicorn and Yeti try to play with a ball but Unicorn is having trouble until they make a modification to the game. Unicorn then convinces Yeti to do a running race, even though Yeti has doubts as to whether it will be fun. And finally the two friends try out ice skating together.

I like the friends' willingness to try out new things with each other. The running race and ball game both have comic twists to get to where both friends have fun. I also appreciate that the two friends have different strengths and weaknesses in sports but that doesn't mean they can't have fun together. A cute graphic novel picture book for kids just beginning to read.

[Shyla]

the stories are simple, which is good for the age group this is meant for... but so repetitive x.x and crazy boring. And the writing.. oh boy, the author doesn't shorten words so the dialogue doesn't even remotely sound like how regular people talk. The tone is very hoity toity and while I sometimes get a high falutin' bug, my 6 year old doesn't. :P
The only reason she liked this was because of the unicorn and it was just silly enough to make her giggle (really, it doesn't take much I guess)

[Sarah Alamer]

We're so proud of you for reading this wonderful book! You learned something very special - that everyone is good at different things, just like Unicorn and Yeti. Unicorn can't kick well, but runs fast. Yeti kicks great but runs slow. They're still best friends because they help each other and find fun games they can both play!
Remember, when you play with your friends, you can work together like a good team too. Great job, sweetie

[Sarah]

Yeti and Unicorn help each other discover new activities. When one is not very good, the other helps them get better at the activity. A great example of encouraging and helping your friends for beginner readers.

[Alicia]

Unicorn and Yeti have adventures playing games outside, and we get to see some magical cuteness too!

For: beginning readers looking for a cute fantasy setting.

Possible red flags: fear of failure/being scared to try new things.

[Kelly]

Interesting stories, glad we're getting acorn books. The stories found twists that I wasn't expecting, so that was cool.

[Alice]

friendship theme

[Mary]

Super cute easy reader series. Bright colors, set up similar to a graphic novel.

[Jon Nakapalau]

Helping each other become better - good friends!

[Pam]

Acorn Series by Scholastic
Yeti and Unicorn enjoy being together. They work hard to find games and ways to play that they can both participate in.
Simple language for beginning chapter book readers.

[Lasette]

The perfect little treat:)

[Miranda]

Very similar to Elephant and Piggie. A good next step.

[Lo Wayward Tomes]

Super cute. Good for young early readers.

[Jnase1]

This new early chapter book series about these two friends is seriously sweet.

[H]

Unicorn and Yeti are back in a fun book in which they play games together (and still remain friends).

[Villain E]

Unicorn and Yeti explore different ways to play together.