The Unicorn Sonata [Hardcover]

Peter S. Beagle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1996

A tomboy misfit and born musician, thirteen-year-old Josephine "Joey" Rivera encounters a mysterious young man named Indigo who changes her life, playing ghostly, haunting music that she follows down an ordinary street into the magical world of Shei'rah. 60,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A quarter century after the publication of his bestselling novel The Last Unicorn, Beagle (The Innkeeper's Song) returns to his fabled beasts for a charming fantasy initially set in contemporary Los Angeles. A misfit 13-year-old girl, Joey Rivera, hears mysterious music and encounters an even more mysterious boy who calls himself Indigo. Thus begins a quest that leads Joey to the faerie land of Shei'rah, source of the music and home of the Old Ones, unicorns who are menaced by blindness. Indigo is a unicorn who has preferred to remain in our world in human form, but he helps Josephine to take her grandmother to Shei'rah and to cure the plague of blindness. The story is slight, but the characterizations are grand, enhanced by graceful prose laced with exquisite detail, and through both literary creativity and folkloric expertise where unicorns are concerned. The return to unicorns and the massive promotional effort behind the novel should put Beagle's name before the public in a way that it has deserved to be for many years. Eleven full-color illustrations by Robert Rodriguez, not seen by PW. $100,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Twenty-seven years after his best-selling The Last Unicorn, Beagle returns to this mythic cash cow for another go-round. Josephine "Joey" Rivera, a 13-year-old girl in suburban Los Angeles, visits her grandmother every weekend, does poorly in school, and helps clean up a music store in exchange for lessons. After a strange young man comes into the store to sell his horn, Joey hears his beautiful music late at night and, following the sound, crosses the Border into the magical world of Shei'rah. The unicorns are going blind, and Joey and her grandmother vow to help. This enchanting story of seeking a true home is highly recommended for fantasy collections.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 154 pages
• Publisher: Turner Pub; 1st edition (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570362882
• ISBN-13: 978-1570362880
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,015,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A childhood morality tale that really delivers, May 27, 2000

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unicorn Sonata (Hardcover)

I am aware of the tendency of fantasy writers to dwell upon the subject of voyages into fantastic otherworlds, which lead the characters to discover their inner strengths and weaknesses. Peter S. Beagle's "The Unicorn Sonata" is a case in point. Like any childhood fairy tale, it speaks of wonderful creatures like unicorns, satyrs, the division between the world of rigid adult control and the carnivalesque world of the child. What really makes the tale deliver is not the fact that Josephine "Joey" Rivera goes through another formulaic journey into a world parallel to the human world, but the identity of the saviour-child she assumes in the fantastic otherworld as she introduces her grandmother, a Mexican woman of her own superstitions, into the realm to heal the sick unicorns. The book, simple as it appears due to its illustrations and the dominant viewpoint of Josephine, is laden with symbolism that unravels bit by bit the need to be selfless and to look at the world around us for miracles. The result of this is a complicit faith in the innocence of the child, and her(or his) ability to change the world, regardless of age and status in society.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Last Unicorn for elementary school readers!, February 23, 2003

By 

"grograman" (US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unicorn Sonata (Hardcover)

I am huge fan of Beagle's "The Last Unicorn," and finally have decided to check out some of his other works. This is the first one I grabbed off the shelf because it is also about unicorns. I was a little disappointed because the plot is very slow and not that interesting, and the dialogue is not very deep or memorable. It lacks most of the lyrical qualities of "The Last Unicorn" in both plot and style. However, I don't think this a bad book!!! Its just different, that's all. I'm sure that Beagle had a different audience in mind. If I were 10 or 12 I would be raving about this book for sure! Call it a "Last Unicorn" for elementary school readers. "The Last Unicorn" is a difficult book after all, full of beautiful poetry, deep characters, and detailed descriptions. Perhaps this is a good stepping stone for younger readers to use... and eventually discover "The Last Unicorn!"

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Music of Innocence, May 14, 2001

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Unicorn Sonata (Hardcover)

Thirteen year old Josephine (`Joey') Rivera helps out part time at John Papas' music store in return for lessons. When a young boy named Indigo walks into the store trying to sell a strange horn on which he can play wonderful haunting music Joey is entranced. While John Papas cannot play the instrument Joey finds that she can. But Indigo's price for the instrument is too high and Joey is left with only the memory of his song. Several nights later, after visiting Abuelita, her grandmother, Joey hears the music again and follows it. Suddenly she finds herself in a different world, Shei'rah, the home of the unicorns.

She meets Ko, a Satyr, who takes her to meet The Eldest, the nearly immortal unicorns, in an adventure we will never forget. Shei'rah is a world of beauty and danger, and The Eldest, at it's heart, are the music of that world. Gradually she learns their ways and of a blinding disease which is gradually destroying them. Traveling back and forth across the border between our world and Shei'rah, Joey seeks to help heal the Unicorns and bring their music back. "The Unicorn Sonata" is the story of her quest, told beautifully by Peter Beagle and illustrated by Robert Rodriguez.

Beagle is the author of "The Last Unicorn" and "A Fine and Private Place," which is on my all time favorites list. In the years since these novels Beagle has become a more youth oriented. While he has remained accessible to us adults, he aims his message where it will do the most good. This is especially true of the "The Unicorn Sonata," which is not really a coming of age story, but one of finding one's self.

Beagle has the ability to turn commonplaces into mysteries in his fiction and from those mysteries construct tales that reflect his abiding belief in human nature. The reader rediscovers the world through the eyes and ears of Joey and her friends. In her quest to heal the unicorns' vision she brings clarity to her own. She is stretched and tested, but never found wanting. Always, in the end, hope returns and we find healing.