WHEN YOU ADOPT A PUGICORN

Princess Ava and her pet Pugicorn spend their first Christmas together ushering in magical snow and assisting Santa.

The holiday season has arrived in Fairyland, and Princess Ava is preparing to celebrate her new pet Pugicorn’s very first Christmas. While they have fun celebrating in the days leading up to the holiday, it seems like there will be no snow on Christmas. Thanks to a wish from Pugicorn, the town of Twinkleton-Under-Beanstalk becomes a winter wonderland. When the snow threatens to hide the village from Saint Nick, Pugicorn climbs the town’s decorated tree and uses a magic rainbow beam to alert Santa, saving Christmas. Pugicorn is a cute pup, sure to delight fans of snuggly animals and sparkly unicorns. His rainbow horn and matching tail seem to have walked straight out of a toy store. Princess Ava has brown skin and dark brown hair in a puffy bun, though other than an assumed sibling, all the other characters are white. Twinkleton-Under-Beanstalk is drawn to be every bit as quaint and glittering as readers would imagine it to be. The story is sweet enough, without a lot of substance, matching the ever-present stars and rainbows on nearly every page. That said, there’s no doubt of its appeal to its intended audience of preschoolers already tuned into princesses, unicorns, and puppies.

A so-so marriage of Christmas, magic, royalty, and fictional animals.