Bo and the Dragon-Pup
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UNICORN DIARIES
books!
For Kirsty.
May you always believe unicorns are real. X – R.E.
Special thanks to Kyle Reed
for his contributions to this book.
Copyright © 2020 by Rebecca Elliott
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920.
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For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention:
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are
either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments,
events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Elliott, Rebecca, author.
Title: Bo and the dragon-pup / Rebecca Elliott.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Branches/Scholastic Inc., 2020.
| Series: Unicorn diaries ; 2 | Summary: Rainbow Tinseltail (called Bo)
has never actually seen a dragon, but when things start going missing from
Sparklegrove School for Unicorns all clues seem to point to a dragon-pup
called Scorch – but when Scorch does not return to the dragon caves, Bo and the other
unicorns become worried that he has gotten lost in the forest and they
set out to find their new friend.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019007658| ISBN 9781338323382 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781338323405 (hardcover : alk. paper) | e-ISBN 9781338323412
Subjects: LCSH: Unicorns – Juvenile fiction. | Dragons – Juvenile fiction. |
Magic – Juvenile fiction. | Friendship – Juvenile fiction. |
Diaries – Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Unicorns-Fiction. | Dragons-Fiction.
| Magic-Fiction. | Friendship-Fiction. | Diaries-Fiction. | LCGFT: Diary fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.E45812 Bk 2020 | DDC [Fic]- dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019007658)
First edition, March 2020
Edited by Katie Carella
Book design by Maria Mercado
Table of Contents
1
Hello!
1
2
Unicorn Detectives
12
3 The Dragon Hunt
22
4 The Trap
40
5 The Missing Dragon-Pup
54
6 Rainbow Rain
66
1
Hello!
Sunday
Hello, Diary!
It’s me again! Rainbow Tinseltail! But
you can call me Bo.
I wonder what adventures we’ll have
in Sparklegrove Forest this week!
1
By the way, Sparklegrove Forest is
where I live. Here it is:
Rainbow Falls
Troll Caves
Glimmer
Sparklegrove School
Glade
for Unicorns
Dragon
Nests
Budbloom
Meadow
Snowbelle Mountain
Unipods
Fairy Village
Twinkleplop
Lagoon
Goblin
Castle
Lots of magical creatures live here . . .
3
Like dragons! Truth is, I’ve never
actually seen a dragon. But here are
four things I know:
Dragons live in
nests.
They love
throwing rocks.
They breathe fire.
They only eat food the color of fire
(like red tomatoes,
sunny oranges, and
yellow custard).
But enough about dragons.
4
As you can see, I am a unicorn.
Horn
Good for reading in the dark!
Rainbow Mane
Can store lots of stuff!
Tummy
Filled with brightly
colored food!
Hooves
Rainbows shoot out of them
when we dance!
Unicorns are much more than a
glowing horn. Here are some fun
UNI-FACTS:
We each have a different Unicorn
Power. I’m a Wish Unicorn.
I can grant
one wish
every week!
We sneeze glitter.
ACHOO!
We live together in unipods.
We’re not good at doing cartwheels.
OOF!
7
I love Sparklegrove School
for Unicorns! S.S.U. is my
school and my home.
This is my
BEST friend Sunny
Huckleberry. He
is a Crystal Clear
Unicorn. He can
turn invisible!
Here are all my friends and our
teacher.
Jed
Nutmeg
Piper
Mr. Rumptwinkle
Scarlett
SunnyMeMonty
Check out their TWINKLE-TASTIC
powers!
Thingamabob
Healer
Unicorn
Unicorn
Flying
Weather
Unicorn
Unicorn
Size-Changer
Shape-Shifter
Unicorn
Unicorn
9
We study GLITTERRIFIC subjects, like:
MAGICAL CREATURES
COLORFUL COOKERY
HORN CARE
MATH
10
My friends and I each have a special
unicorn patch blanket. The patches
show everything we’ve learned so far.
Every week, Mr. Rumptwinkle tells us
what new patch we’re going to try to
earn. Then we work hard all week for it!
I can’t wait to find out what this
week’s patch will be!
11
2
Unicorn Detectives
Monday
Diary, my friends and I made a
SHOCKING discovery this morning!
When we woke up, Monty’s patch blanket
was MISSING!
Don’t worry Monty, we’ll help you find it.
I definitely had it with
me when I went to sleep.
12
We searched our unipod.
It
must be here
somewhere.
Then we all searched the forest near
our school.
But we couldn’t find it anywhere!
13
We trotted over to Mr. Rumptwinkle
to tell him the bad news. And we saw
something else super shocking!
Mr. Rumptwinkle! Your glasses
look, um, different. Where are
your normal ones?
Good question! My glasses were on
my nightstand when I went to bed. But
when I woke up, they were gone!
So I’m wearing an old pair.
Your glasses are missing, too?
We told Mr. Rumptwinkle about
Monty’s blanket. Then we checked to
see if anything else was missing.
14
Nutmeg’s slippers had also
disappeared!
A missing patch blanket!
Missing glasses! AND missing
slippers! A thief must have
snuck in while we
were asleep!
But who would steal
that kind of stuff?
That is the perfect
question to start off our
week, Scarlett! You see,
this week will be the
DETECTIVE patch week!
Work together to solve
this mystery, and you will
all get a new patch at the
Patch Parade on Friday.
15
Scarlett used her thingamabob
magnifying glasses for all of us.
Then we looked for clues.
I found the first one!
Look!
16
The small window at the top of our
unipod was open.
The thief must be someone
who can jump up high!
Or someone really tall.
Or someone who can fly.
17
Later, Monty found another clue.
TWINKLING TAILS!
There are crumbs over here!
We studied the crumbs.
Which kinds of creatures eat carrots?
18
We studied our MAGICAL CREATURES
books while we ate lunch.
Carrots are orange . . .
Orange is the color of fire!
And who eats
fiery-colored foods?!
GASP!
DRAGONS!
We quickly came up with a plan.
Let’s go on a dragon hunt tomorrow!
That sounds dangerous.
Maybe we should ask
Mr. Rumptwinkle?
No. If we want our new patch,
we’re going to have to solve
this mystery on our own.
Jed is right. Besides,
we won’t get close
to the dragons.
We’ll just spy on them
to see if they have our
stuff. Then we’ll tell
Mr. Rumptwinkle!
20
Sunny and I were too excited to
sleep. We’ve never even gone near a
dragon nest before!
I wonder what the dragons will look like.
I bet they’re HUGE and MEAN!
Oh, don’t say that.
I don’t want to go
if it’s too scary.
Don’t worry, Bo.
We’ll be together.
Diary, I can’t wait for the dragon hunt!
21
3
The Dragon Hunt
Tuesday
We woke up early to search for
dragons.
Look!
Dragon footprints!
22
We followed the footprints until they
stopped.
Great. What do we do now?
Suddenly, Nutmeg called down to us.
The leaves on these treetops are burned!
23
We stared up at the trees above.
I bet a FIRE-BREATHING dragon did that!
There are lots of
burned leaves!
Lead the way, Nutmeg!
24
We trotted deep into the forest until
we heard a big ROAR! Orange flames
shot up into the sky!
We ducked behind some rocks and
peeked over to see –
Three HUGE dragons! They were
breathing fire and throwing rocks. We’d
found the dragon nests!
We were all a bit scared. My hooves
were shaking!
26
We whispered to one another.
Wow. Dragons are much bigger
than I thought they would be.
There’s no way those dragons could
fit through our unipod window.
You’re right. It was silly to think
a dragon was the thief.
Great! Can we go home now?
Okay. Let’s go home.
As Jed was leading the way home,
Piper yelped and leaped into the air.
EEEK!
What’s wrong, Piper?
Someone just pulled
my tail!
28
We looked around.
There’s no one else here.
Maybe you’re just feeling jumpy
after seeing those scary dragons?
I KNOW somebody pulled my tail!
We kept trotting through the
forest. But soon, more strange things
happened.
29
A big bunch of leaves flew into
Monty’s face.
Ugh! Who threw those at me?!
We heard giggling in the trees above.
Someone’s up there!
HEHE!
HEHE!
30
Suddenly, a DRAGON leaped out in
front of us!
ROAR!!!
31
Then we saw it was only a little
dragon-pup! He rolled around on the
ground, laughing!
I looked at the dragon-pup and
realized three things:
1. This little
dragon could fly.
2. He was small
enough to fit
through our unipod
window.
32
3. He was chewing
on a carrot!
YOU’RE who we’ve been
looking for!
33
The dragon-pup smiled and flapped
his wings. It seemed like he wanted us
to play with him.
I bet you can’t catch me!
Come back here!
34
We spent the rest of the day chasing
the little dragon through the forest. He
was fast and very good at hiding!
Sometimes he’d sneak up on us, then
fly off again.
Ugh! Quit pulling my tail!
35
At Rainbow Falls, he leaped up and
splashed us!
This is silly.
We’re too tired
to catch him now.
And it’s getting late.
SPLASH!
We decided to go home and try again
tomorrow.
That dragon-pup is so naughty!
He is. But what if
he’s not the thief?
Huh?
Well, why would
a dragon-pup
want our stuff?
Hmmm. I’m not sure.
Let’s rethink all of our clues.
37
We kept thinking about the clues.
And at CLOUDtime, Sunny shared a
new idea about the thief.
Maybe a rabbit i
s the thief!
What makes you say that?
We found carrot crumbs,
and rabbits love carrots.
They can jump
up high, too!
38
But we saw the dragon-pup eating a carrot
today. And if the dragon-pup didn’t steal
our stuff, then why did he run away
when we tried to talk to him?
I don’t know.
We can’t blame the
dragon-pup unless we
know he’s the thief.
Tomorrow we need to find proof.
Now I’m worried we might not solve the
mystery and earn our DETECTIVE patches.
Oh Diary, I don’t know what to think! We
all went to sleep feeling very confused.
39
4
The Trap
Wednesday
This morning, we trotted back to the
dragon nests.
Keep your eyes open for Monty’s
blanket, Mr. Rumptwinkle’s eyeglasses,
and Nutmeg’s slippers! If we see the
dragon-pup with any of our stuff,
we’ll know he is the thief.
Be on the lookout for rabbits, too!
40
We hid behind the rocks again. The
big dragons were outside. But today
they didn’t look scary. They looked sad
and worried!
I wish we could hear
I have an idea!
what they’re saying.
Me too!
Sunny and Monty used their powers
so they could creep close enough to
hear the dragons.
Then they galloped back to us.
42
The dragons are worried about
their younger brother Scorch.
It sounds like he didn’t
come home last night.
Scorch must be the dragon-pup
from yesterday!
Oh no! What if he’s missing because of us?
What if we chased him so far away that