Unicorns · Honesty · Repair
The Unicorn and the Borrowed Rainbow
She only borrowed it for one afternoon. It is now Thursday.
- Age range
- Ages 5-9
- Reading time
- 7 minutes
- Category
- Unicorn stories
What happens
A unicorn takes a rainbow that belongs to the whole valley, means to give it back, and then cannot work out how to admit she has it. A story about the gap between doing a small wrong thing and saying so.
Read the opening
Listen to this story
The rainbow lived over the waterfall and belonged to everybody, which is a way of saying it belonged to nobody in particular.
Sable took it on Monday. Just for the afternoon, just to see how it felt to be the brightest thing in the field. She meant to put it back before supper.
It was now Thursday. Every morning the valley looked up at the grey sky and said, "where has it gone," and every morning Sable said, "I don't know," in a voice that got smaller each time.
The rest of the story is written around your child — their name, their age, and the hero they describe.
What if your child were the hero?
Make This Story About My ChildFree, about 20 seconds, no card needed — this same adventure, starring them.
Imagine your child in this story
Type a first name. Imagiverse writes, illustrates and narrates the whole story in about a minute — free, no card needed.
Why this one is worth your time
- Focuses on the cover-up rather than the original act — the part children actually get stuck in.
- Nobody punishes Sable; the discomfort does the work, and the repair is hers to make.
- A useful read after a week with a fib in it, without naming your child's fib.
Talk about it afterward
- Why did it get harder to tell the truth each day?
- What could Sable have said on Monday evening?
What if your child were the hero?