Are Unicorns Real?

Collins Big Cat supports every primary child on their reading journey from phonics to fluency. Top authors and illustrators have created fiction and non-fiction books that children love to read. Book banded for guided and independent reading, there are reading notes in the back, comprehensive teaching and assessment support and ebooks available.

Most people know what a unicorn looks like. We often see unicorns in books and films, and even on banknotes. But no one has ever seen a unicorn in real life. Were unicorns ancient animals that became extinct, like the dinosaurs? Or do they only exist in our imaginations?

Get ready to explore the history of unicorn myths and legends, and weigh up the evidence that unicorns once existed – or still do!

Lime Plus/Band 11+ books provide challenging plots and vocabulary as well as opportunities to practise inference, prediction and reading stamina.

Pages 46 and 47 allow children to re-visit the content of the book, supporting comprehension skills, vocabulary development and recall.

Ideas for reading in the back of the book provide practical support and stimulating activities.

Imagine spending every day finding out more about your favourite topic in the world. This sounds too good to be true but is exactly what scientists do! Isabel was inspired to write about the science of unicorns after receiving dozens of curious questions on her visits to schools.

Isabel is a science writer and the author of more than 180 books for young people. She won the AAAS Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books 2020 and has been shortlisted for the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize, the Deutscher Jugendliteratur Preis, the ASE Book of the Year, the English 4-11 Book Awards, and the Blue Peter Book Awards.

Isabel also writes for science magazines including The Week Junior Science + Nature and works with organisations such as the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the BBC to create science outreach resources. After growing up in a low-income single parent family, Isabel won a place to study Engineering and then Human Sciences at the University of Oxford. She has dedicated her career to widening access to science for people from underrepresented groups, and recently completed a research degree at the University of Cambridge, investigating how to harness the power of integrated arts and sciences in education to raise science capital.