Goldilicious (2009)

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These books are growing on my but I still find Pinkalicious to be a whinny brat (at least to her parents). Goldilicious is her imaginary unicorn who she has grand adventures with. I can start to see where this series would sprout continuations and a tv series. Thank goodness I don’t have to watch it. ( )

Yet another fun and funny children's book by Kann. Pinkalicious reminds me SO much of my daughter. ( )

That pink-loving little girl, whose story began in the eponymous Pinkalicious, and then continued in Purplicious, returns in this third picture-book devoted to her (rather bratty) adventures. This time, the theme is pretend play, and Pinkalicious enjoys a day of make believe with her imaginary friend, Goldilicious the unicorn. Pinkalicious' brother Peter also gets in on the action, kidnapping the unicorn, who escapes and is transformed into a mermaid (sort of). Despite these contretemps, at the end of the day Pinkalicious discovers that her friend is waiting for her at bedtime...

Like its predecessors, Goldilicious is a hot mess: poorly written, poorly illustrated, and poorly thought out. I continue to find Victoria Kann's artwork flat and unappealing, and her heroine intensely unlikable. While I understand that young children don't always exhibit the best behavior, I find it odd that Pinkalicious' lack of respect for her elders (as in previous stories, she is rude to her parents here) and for her home (she makes a mess, playing in the living room) is never really addressed in the story. This sort of thing - issues going unresolved in the story - seems quite common in these books. As mentioned in previous reviews, I am reading this entire series for a work-related project, otherwise I probably wouldn't have continued past the initial title, given how unimpressed I was with it. That said, I think if anything the quality of storytelling has decreased, as I've read through subsequent books. There are infinitely better stories out there about girls and unicorns - try Uni the Unicorn, for starters - and it is to such titles that I would direct readers, rather than to these books. Not recommended. ( )