UNICO

This graphic novel adapts Osamu Tezuka's manga about Unico, a tiny unicorn with the power to make the people around him happier, which is exactly why the jealous gods can't stand him and keep banishing him to a new time and place whenever he settles somewhere. Each relocation becomes its own small rescue story, with Unico using what magic he has to help whoever he lands near, all while staying one step ahead of the goddess Venus, who never stops hunting him. At 220 paperback pages, it's built as one continuous chase across historical periods and invented worlds rather than a single self-contained plot.

The emotional register stays surprisingly sincere for a story this fantastical: Unico's optimism isn't played as naive, it's the actual engine of the plot, since every place he lands gets better because he showed up. That makes the friendship-and-kindness message land without feeling tacked on, because the book keeps proving it through what Unico does rather than stating it outright. Ages 12 to 18 is the listed range, which fits a reader old enough to sit with the melancholy of a character who's never allowed to stay anywhere, and Goodreads has it at 4.48 from 171 ratings.