First Day of Unicorn School by Jess Hernandez and Mariano Epelbaum

First Day of Unicorn School by Jess Hernandez and Mariano Epelbaum will be published in January of 2021. I was lucky to receive an ARC from the author, but this book is available for ordering right now. I taught with Jess at a middle school, and her sense of humor shines through in her debut book. 

This is the story of Milly the donkey who gets accepted to unicorn school, but since she isn't a unicorn, she wears a party hat and masquerades as one. She meets all the other unicorns when she is distracted and bumps into one and then stumbles into the others. What she doesn't realize until later is that none of the other animals are unicorns either. 

I like that this story shows the importance of being your true self and that often we all feel like we are suffering from imposter syndrome. This would be a fun story to read to young children in pre-school or elementary school and have them create their own unicorn disguises. They could also find the similarities they share with each other. 

Mariano Epelbaum created the cute and brightly colored art for this book that is fitting for unicorns. 

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Link to our NICU book registry to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.