Uni the Unicorn and the Dream Come True
Written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Illustrated by Brigette Barrager
Random House, 2017
Medium: Photoshop
The first Uni the Unicorn book was very successful, and the author spent time touring and reading it aloud at schools and bookstores. A question Amy received from children over and over again was, “but…do Uni and the little girl ever REALLY get to meet?” This question stuck in Amy’s brain, and so came the second book!
For this book, I had to draw about (this is just my own rough estimate) one billion unicorns. Since it takes place in the Land of Unicorns, and of course, of course, of course, you can’t draw the land without the unicorns!
While I was working on this book, I happened to travel to Chicago, which happened to be where Amy lived. We would meet in person at last! We met at her home, within walking distance of Wrigley Field, and we talked about Uni, collaboration, and our experiences making books. At the end of our meeting she gave me a recommendation for a lunch spot, and we parted ways. It was the first and only time we would meet, as Amy passed away before the second Uni book was released. Uni the Unicorn and the Dream Come True was also a NYT Bestseller – but it was a strange feeling to celebrate such an accomplishment without her. Her absence is a devastating loss.
We felt that there was no way to continue making Uni books without Amy, and that was that.
But then…