Review by Booklist Review
The prestigious Triple Trident is fast approaching, and Pip Bartlett, magical-creature enthusiast, cannot wait to see what animals will be competing. Pip, first introduced in Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures (2015), is in the thick of things assisting her Aunt Emma, a magical-animal vet, and busy updating her beloved creature guide with all the new things she's learning about animal care. To Pip's surprise, Regent Maximus, an incredibly anxious unicorn, is at the Trident to compete if he can be coaxed out of his stall. As Pip and her friend Tomas work with him, someone else is trying to sabotage the competition, and Pip's determined to catch the culprit. Pearceand Stiefvater ratchet up the humor in this sequel, largely through Pip's ability to understand the animals, and from Regent Maximus' inventive phobias (I'll knock my horn on the bar and it will fall off!). Once again, illustrations from Pip's guide appear throughout, giving readers an amusing glimpse of some of the creatures Pip encounters.--Smith, Julia Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-Pip Bartlett and her friend Tomas return in this sequel to Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures. In her latest outing, Pip heads to the Triple Trident Unicorn competition to help her aunt, but soon she and Tomas find themselves attempting to train a high-strung, fearful unicorn and trying to discover who is cutting off unicorn tails in the stables. While most of the plot focuses on Pip's rather humorous training of Regent Maximus and the addition of a number of new magical creatures, the mystery element imbues the story with a bit of seriousness. The book contains guide entries that feature black-and-white illustrations of the various magical creatures, but the placement of the drawings doesn't always line up with the text, making it necessary for readers to do some page flipping. VERDICT Those who enjoyed the previous title will be anxious to pick up this volume, and those who have not read the first installment will quickly find themselves immersed in Pip's world, charmed by the creatures and Pip and her friends and family.-Heather Webb, Worthington Libraries, OH © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Griffins and HobGrackles and Grims, oh my! In Pearce and Stiefvaters alternate universe, Jeffrey Higglestons Guide is the trusted authority on magical creatures, and as an aspiring researcher, nine-year-old Pip Bartlett keeps her copy close (adding information-rich doodles as her own knowledge grows). Pip can speak to the creatures, but nobody believes her. After a unicorn mishap at school, shes sent away for the summer, where she helps her aunt run the familys veterinary clinic. When the town is infested with Fuzzles (combustible dustlike creatures that live in underwear drawers), the Supernatural/Magical Animal Care, Keeping, and Education Department (S.M.A.C.K.E.D. for short) wants them exterminated. Together with her show tunesobsessed cousin; her new best friend Tomas, an allergy-prone boy who hiccups colored bubbles; and a scaredy-cat unicorn, Pip discovers the source of the Fuzzle problem and a solution to boot. Loaded with kid-friendly similes (hair stuck up like hed rubbed it against a balloon), the fast-paced prose is lively, witty, and gripping. Pages of Jeffrey Higglestons Guide with Pips improving notations are scattered throughout the text, and Stiefvaters black-and-white textured illustrations (often, satirically, featuring cuddly, big-eyed creatures) support world-building and character-building alike. The satisfying ending leaves just enough unresolved so readers will anticipate a sequel. An accessible fantasy for independent readers not yet ready for Rowling. elisa gall (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Pip, who can talk to magical animals, runs into both a major challenge and a mystery at the Triple Trident show.Pip is naturally over the moon when the large annual gathering of mythological creatures comes to her Georgia town. But the discovery that Regent Maximus, the scene-stealing unicorn first met in Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Beasts (2015), has been entered in a competition presents her with a real poser: can she find ways to keep the hilariously skittish animal from fleeing the ring in blind panic and maybe even put in a good showing? Keeping to their avowed intentions, the co-authors trot in one adorable traditional or newly minted beast after another, from baby unicorns (or as they put it: "Baby. Unicorns") to the sugar-loving greater rainbow minkwhich produces candy-scented (but not -flavored) pooand various occasionally invisible glimmerbeasts like the crested curly woo. All are illustrated and provided with descriptive profiles. Though so free of villains, rivals, or even momentary friction between characters that a mysterious vandal who cuts off unicorn tails turns out to have worthy reasons, the story is rescued from blandness by its humor and its uniformly good-natured multispecies cast. Pip looks white on the cover; her Latino friends Tomas and Marisol are the only characters with specific ethnic markers. A resolutely but not obnoxiously feel-good episode with well-merited just deserts all round. (Fantasy. 8-11) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
