Teresa Bateman

A serving girl named Tanisa mourns the fact that her childhood playmate Chris, the son of the terrible duke in whose castle she works, has grown as cold and cruel as his father in this original fairy-tale from author Teresa Bateman and illustrator Greg Spalenka. When a unicorn is sighted nearby, the duke and visiting nobles are intent on hunting him down, with Chris an eager participant. Sickened at the prospect, Tanisa remains in the woodland glade preparing lunch for the hunters when the unicorn comes to her. When Chris happens upon them, having returned earlier than expected, will he kill this wonderful creature, who only brings good to the world...?

I have read a number of other picture books from Bateman at this point, most of them original stories featuring magical creatures of traditional lore, but The Eyes of the Unicorn is the first title I have read with Greg Spalenka's artwork. On the whole, I was not very impressed with the book, finding the story rather too on the nose, in terms of the message it was seeking to impart, and the artwork rather unappealing. According to the information on the colophon, the visuals here were produced using pencil sketches that were then scanned and digitally combined with photographic, painterly and collage elements. However that may be, the end result just felt off to me—a little creepy, and not very enjoyable. There were elements to the illustrations that I thought were lovely, so I think I might have preferred Spalenka's paintings, without any photographic or collage additions. In any case, this is not one I strongly recommend, as I think both story and artwork are lacking.… (more)