Once again, there are many delights from Phoebe and Marigold as they continue their adventures. We learn about unicorn omens and why booping is considered bad for unicornkind. The two also describe why their friendship works so well and Marigold is assigned some things by Phoebe might make them insecure but it's why they love each other. Also, we get some Freaky Friday action and a book club with Marigold, Todd, and Blartbert.
Another delightful story. Simpson combines vocabulary words, learning about the world, and whimsy that keeps me reading.

Five stars
This book comes out October 3, 2024
Follows Punk Rock Unicorn
ARC kindly provided by Andrews McMeel Publishing and Edelweiss
Opinions are my own

Simpson keeps this series funny and fresh after all this time. Phoebe is smart and vulnerable. Marigold is self involved, but caring and always willing to grow. Together the two learn to navigate the complicated and sometimes hilarious trials of life.

Unicorn for a Day: Another Phoebe and her Unicorn Adventure is #18 in the series. 18!!! Thats pretty amazing.

I'm guessing that if you have enjoyed prior Phoebe and Marigold books, you will enjoy this one as well. Heck, I'm in my 50's and I enjoyed it. I laughed out loud in regards to the book club discussion. I'd recommend the book just for one page alone; tempted to buy a book and have that page framed. I know, I wouldn't really do that ... I'm probably being unfriended and unfollowed already for merely making the suggestion.

I love how Phoebe and Marigold introduce words to young readers and have the definitions in the back of the book. Such a great series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read the advance read copy of Unicorn for a Day in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing for approving my advance read copy request. Thank you to author/illustrator Dani Simpson for continuing to capture young readers with this fun series.

Listen. If Dana Simpson writes it, I’m gonna read it. Phoebe and Her Unicorn has been a favorite of mine for years (since I was closer in age to the target audience!), and what I have always appreciated about Simpson’s work is her ability to treat the anxieties and joys of kids with as much weight as adult emotions. She really knows how to respect the agency of kids while still making them, y’know, kids.

That said, this wasn’t a new favorite volume for me because a lot of the arcs felt a bit cut short and prematurely resolved. I know absolutely nothing about comic syndication, so maybe Simpson has no choice in that sort of thing, but I’ve definitely preferred previous volumes that give us longer, more in-depth stories.

I love Dan Simpson so much. I bought all the novels for my twins to read so I was excited to receive an ARC for one of her books. Of course the art ws lovely and the story made me laugh. These are the most wholesome books.
I love when they body swapped. We should all be obsessed with ourselves.

Nine year old Phoebe and her best friend and Unicorn Marigold Heavenly Nostrils are hanging out together. As usual, they talk about all the important things in life
like friends, school, and embarrassing moments, and also in Marigold Heavenly Nostrils case - how beautiful, amazing, clever and sparkly she is!

They like to play little tricks on each other but never anything nasty - bringing laughs from the victor. When they argue about how much harder the other has to work each day, they decide to swap identities. Phoebe is going to enjoy doing nothing but skipping and frolicking through meadows and MHNostrils is going to be Phoebe. Both promise the other not to do anything weird.

Weird is definitely what happens, with funny results.

Phoebe's parents and other friends feature in this episode. Her parents despair at an old TV program they used to enjoy. Now as the world is changed, they can see how inappropriate it was. Phoebe tries the same experiment which leads to worries about growing up and changing. Despite constantly teasing each other, they wonder if they will drift apart as Phoebe ages (HMN is nearly as old as time itself), but as usual, talking about it allays any fears.

All of this and more is in small comic strips and always funny. HMN's ego is huge, hilarious and lightens everything, while Phoebe's sharp wit can counteract her magical best friend's narcissistic personality.


This is No.18 in this series, and I found it is not essential to read the previous episodes to enjoy Unicorn for a Day.

Phoebe and Marigold Heavenly Nostrils' friendship is hilarious as Phoebe is only nine and learning about the world, where MHN is an ancient magical and positively sparkling (in her opinion) being that knows all (in her opinion). This leads to hilarious conversations about all and everything as they banter and bicker and build their remarkable friendship.

Being a Unicorn for a Day is only one of many story threads within this graphic novel. 

There are a lot of words young readers will come across through this collection of comic strips, but there is a handy glossary in the back to help. Learning new vocab while laughing is a great way to do it!

I love the illustration and easy to read lettering style in this funny graphic novel series.

Age - 8+

Graphic Novel

I love this series so much! It is always an auto buy for me and this book was no exception. You know when you aren't feeling real great and you put on that favorite cozy sweater and everything is just going to be ok. This book is the literature equivalent of that cozy sweater. The colors, art, and story are perfect. And no matter how bad my day is reading Phoebe and her Unicorn always makes it feel better, It is book 18 and that feeling hasn't gone away. I can't wait for more books.

5 stars

I love this book! I've read all the other books in the series, so I knew what to expect, and this book did not disappoint! I love the vibes between Phoebe and Marigold!

This series is a must for elementary classrooms. My students fight over them. This new one is sure to be no different. It will be an absolute purchase for my classroom library.

This was an enjoyable read! Gave me a laugh every now and then. I have previously only read one other Phoebe book, the first in the series in Norwegian translation, and that was so funny I laughed and laughed! I liked the first better, but this was absolutely worth reading.

I will talk about this in a YouTube video to be published on Sunday 17 September 2023.

This is a super cute graphic novel about the friendship between 10 year old Phoebe and her unicorn bestie Marigold. I absolutely LOVE the art work and style of this graphic novel. I love how the unicorns are drawn. There's even goblins and dragons! Life advise is given out by both the humans and the unicorns (the best part for me is when the parents and Phoebe have a conversation about rewatching TV shows from your youth and how sometimes they don't age well. It made me laugh).

The title alludes to the main event when Marigold casts a spell and switches forms with Phoebe for a little bit... shenanigans ensue. Both agree that it's better to be in their own skin in the end.

If you need a little spark and a little cheer in your life, pick up this graphic novel. It will make you smile and brighten your day!

Unicorn for a Day by Dana Simpson

Children's Fiction - Comics, Graphic Novels, Manga
Available for purchase October 2023

A fun graphic novel for kids in Elementary and Middle school to dive into. This is the 18th book in the series of Pheobe and her unicorn Marigold and the adventures continue. I enjoyed the illustrations, colors, and adventures they found themselves in. I did read this out loud to my 5 and 8-year-old, my 8-year-old loved it and had a pretty good understanding of what was going on. A great series that I would love to read from the beginning with my children, as we all had a fun time.

These are perennially popular with my middle grade students, especially the grades 6 and 7 girls. It has the same structure as the classic Calvin and Hobbes with the added bonus of full color and modern technology. I cannot keep anything in this series on my shelves and I will have to buy this one. We also have had at least one teacher start to read this and a small handful of boys as well. It also translates well to upper elementary because it has a complex enough vocabulary to challenge some readers (with added glossary in the back), but no objectionable content that any parent could ever protest.

Dana Simpson is a storytelling great and this unfolding series is perfect for young readers, and enjoyable across ages. Simpson was kind enough to podcast with me about this series, and I highly recommend it for classrooms and school libraries.

Another graphic novel for Phoebe and her unicorn Marigold from Dana Simpson. This is the 18th in the series that continues to be very popular in my elementary school library. These are fun, silly, whimsical, comic strip style stories. And no one ever really learns a lesson from their actions. I love that the author stretches word vocabulary and gives a highlights a glossary at the back. This will end up on my library shelf. Geared toward elementary school readers. Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the temporary ARC and I am leaving a voluntary review.

I just discovered these and will be picking up the others. We love a good comic style book. My girls loved the storyline! We also really loved the illustrations.

I think this graphic novel was cute and fun, however, if I could use only one word to describe it all, it would certainly be "chaotic". A lot of jumping around from story to story, it wasn't a consistent story and felt all over the place. It was a fun novel to read though, and even though the artwork isn't my favourite style, the unicorn was very cute and I enjoyed the dialogue between the unicorn and the girl, it was funny.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this novel.

My daughter (age 4) checks these books out from the library and likes to page through them. However, this is the first book that I actually read. The kids, four and six (boy), both gave it a solid four – they said it was good. However, I would not really desire to read another one of this again. I did not really care for the omens and spells theme. The book is more a collection of short comics put together one after the other but no divisions in the book to make it clear where one idea ends in the next begins. There also really aren’t any lessons being learned or portrayed in this book also. It’s pure fluff.

I generally enjoy these because I have been a fan of the artist for quite a while.
Some notes on this particular volume:
I thought the Unicorn for a day/Freaky Friday concept was a fun idea, but it wasn't given much justice. Nothing monumental happened, nobody really learned anything from the experience, and there were no lasting consequences. I feel like we're currently missing any true ongoing Arcs now that Dakota has been tamed. I hope the introduction of the new girl might change this, as long as she doesn't just become Dakota 2.0.

Also, what's the deal with Phoebe's freckles? She has more every volume. Someone commented over my shoulder that she looks like she has 5 o'clock shadow.

I still ❤️ Marigold and Phoebe.

This is an easy to read junior comic. I gave this story to my 9 year old daughter and she enjoyed it. She said it was a little weird at times but enjoyed it overall - especially when Phoebe turns into a unicorn. She said the pictures were great and that Marigold was funny.

I had a read through and thought the illustrations were great and although the storyline jumped along in what felt a random way at times there were some great messages in there about friendship.