Fern is a unicorn that doesn't quite fit in with the rest. Rather than glitter and rainbows, she loves to spend her time engineering new inventions and conducting science experiments. When everything goes wrong at the big dance party, Fern puts her skills to the test and gets her new friends interested in science and math. This book is bright, colorful, and full of unicorn fun--my own two daughters were immediately drawn to it. I like the females in STEM component as well as the messages of staying true to yourself and friendship. A very appealing and eye catching book for student K-3.

The image of unicorns gets tossed on its head as a special unicorn steps in to save the day.

All unicorns prance on rainbows and do happy, glittery, unicorn things. All of them except Fern. She loves to calculate, create, build and calibrate...and she's a super helpful unicorn. But no matter how kind she is, the other unicorns still poke fun at her. When enough is enough, she closes her door and stays in her lab, refusing to help those nasty unicorns...until they knock on her door.

The idea of a Nerdycorn won me over immediately. Add the cover with a blowtorch and experiments bubbling in the background, and this unicorn had to be a creature after my own heart. This book is definitely original and is one that will capture unicorn fans' attention as well as anti-unicorn peeps, who actually would kind of love to love unicorns...if each one didn't fart rainbows and such.

Let's start with the text, shall we? The story is well written and adds humorous as well as original sparks. The main text tells the tale, while little added words in the illustrations bring thoughts and humor to life. The vocabulary is, in general, very age appropriate, but this author goes further and allows terminology from the mechanical, science, and engineering world to dribble in. I couldn't help but smile as computer coding, multimeters and arc welders mixed right in with pure imaginative items like zero-gravity ice-cream experiments.

The illustrations are brightly colored, pulse with energy and hold so many amazing, quirky details to add gazing enjoyment. But then, this is about unicorns and science, experiment-loving ones.

And there's a message. Now, if anything, it was this part which left me just a tiny bit less enthusiastic. While the idea of bullying and not fitting in fits to the age group and is an important message, Fern's sour attitude and sudden (out of nowhere) desire to change it hit strange. But that is really only a slight stutter and doesn't really effect the rest of the sparkle and shine...or, in this case, calibrating and grind. This is a read young listeners are sure to enjoy as a read-aloud or simply gaze at on their own.

I received a complimentary copy and found this to be a wonderful, unicorn twist. ( )