Lumberjanes – Unicorn Power!

Mariko Tamaki's Lumberjanes - Unicorn Power! is a fantasy for 8 year olds set at a summer camp where the woods are full of things nobody has documented yet.

What happens

The camp has a very long name. Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp for Hardcore Lady-Types. The sign under the archway says FRIENDSHIP TO THE MAX, and it means it.

Roanoke cabin is five scouts. April, small, ferocious and completely mad about puns. Jo, who invents things and thinks in numbers. Mal, who notices when something is odd and hates water. Molly, who wears a live raccoon called Bubbles as a hat. And Ripley, who is mostly airborne.

They're out collecting plants for a badge when Ripley spots a unicorn and goes after it at, as the book puts it, the speed of a thousand Ripleys. Everyone else follows, because Lumberjanes stick together.

The unicorn turns out to be lost. It also smells absolutely appalling. Armpits and anchovies, Jo decides, and the whole cabin has to walk upwind of it.

That's the tone of it. Magic is real and slightly ridiculous, and the girls take it completely seriously anyway.

What makes it such good company is the narrator, who keeps interrupting to explain things. Why you must never take a magical creature home. What a cacophony is, with a helpful comparison to a buffet plate. That unicorns run in zigzags and nobody knows why.

Then, beyond the meadow, there's a mountain so big you can't see the top of it, and April starts wanting things.

A few things a parent might like to know. Jo has two dads. Mal and Molly hold hands. Barney, from Zodiac cabin, uses they and them, and the book explains that in one plain sentence and moves on. Molly's parents think she isn't doing well enough at a lot of things, which is the quietest and saddest thread in the story.

The danger level is very low. The worst thing anybody faces in the whole opening stretch is Rosie's six-bean chilli, which she reckons could blow your eyeballs out if you mishandle it.

It's genuinely funny, and the badge names alone are worth it. Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fondant, for cake decorating. The Mystery of History. YODELAHEEEWHOOO Wants to Know.

For a child who has ever wanted to be extremely good at something outdoors, this will go down very well indeed.

What to read next

There's more camp in the library too. The Good Egg gives Ripley the spotlight, and it starts with her hanging upside down from a branch over a nest of enormous golden eggs, talking to the smallest one.