A story with the unicorn
Sitting in the grass, a girl reads a book aloud to a kitten and the little unicorn, who listen quietly.
- Recommended age
- Ages 4 and up · 20 to 40 minutes
- Theme
- Unicorns
The reader and her audience
A girl has sat down in the grass, her two pigtails tied with ribbons, an open book on her lap. She is reading aloud, and she has two listeners: a kitten sitting on the left, looking up at her, and the little unicorn sitting on the right, smiling. Beside her, two more books wait in a pile for later.
Reading before you can read
At four, children can’t sound out letters yet, but they already “read”: they turn the pages, tell what the pictures show, repeat the sentences they know by heart. The girl in the picture may be doing exactly that. Her audience, anyway, asks for nothing more: a kitten and a unicorn are the most patient listeners in the world.
Three well-separated characters
The girl fills the middle of the sheet, with the kitten and the unicorn on either side: three big shapes that barely touch, easy to color one after another. The details are few and easy to read: the round collar of the dress, its pocket, the buttons, the little dots along the hem. All around, a few daisies, some clovers, two mushrooms and a butterfly.
A book to make up
The pages of the open book are almost blank, crossed by a few lines: that is where the child can add a little drawing of their own, the picture from the story the girl is reading. The covers of the stacked books can take bright colors, a different one for each. The kitten can be orange, gray or tabby, and the unicorn keeps its mane for the happiest colors.
A word for the grown-up: invite your child to line up their stuffed animals and “read” them a favorite book by telling the pictures. They take the reader’s seat, and discover that a story is something you pass on.
Coloring pages that go with this one
More pages from the same theme, age or season — the ones you print right after.
