With simple, heartfelt stories, My Secret Unicorn is the perfect beginning chapter-book series for girls who love horses and magic. These books will make every young reader believe!
Lauren has a secret: When she whispers the magic words, her pony turns into a beautiful snow-white unicorn.
Lauren doesn't believe in ghosts, but there is definitely something spooky going on down by the creek. Then one night, as Lauren and Twilight fly over the woods near the scary tree house, they make a surprising discovery.
Linda Chapman was born in Liverpool in 1969. She had many different jobs before becoming a full-time writer in 1999 including working as a theatre stage manager, a dog trainer, a bookseller, a nanny, a teacher and a research assistant. She has written over 300 books for children, some under her own name, others under different names and she often collaborates with other authors. She is currently writing books with Julie Sykes and they are co-authors on the NYT bestselling Unicorn Academy series as well as Mermaid Academy, Forever Homes and Pocket Unicorns. Linda lives in Leicestershire with her husband, three children, two horses and three dogs. She has written many different series including: My Secret Unicorn, Star Friends, Best Friends Bakery, Stardust, Skating School and, most recently, Magic Keepers and Moonlight Riders.
Im vierten Band der Sternenschweif-Reihe geht es um ein altes Baumhaus im Wald, in dem es spuken soll. Die Kinder trauen sich daher nicht mehr in die Nähe des Baumhauses. Doch dann wirft ein Junge genau dort Max´ geliebtes Kuscheltier hoch in die Bäume, so dass es dort hängenbleibt. Lauras kleiner Bruder Max ist sehr traurig und Laura beschließt, ihm zu helfen. Dafür benötigt sie die magischen Kräfte ihres Ponys, das sie nachts in ein Einhorn verwandeln kann... 💖 💖 Eine schöne Folge dieser Buchreihe. Mir hat die Hilfsbereitschaft von Laura gut gefallen, denn sie musste sich zunächst ein bisschen dazu durchringen, hat dann aber doch das Richtige getan.
I picked this one up at the library's book sale last week and thought my niece might enjoy it. It is a cute story. The whole saying a rhyme to turn a pony into a unicorn bit was different. I didn't know that this was a series, and naturally ai picked up #4. I will be on the look out to see if I can find any others in the series for my niece. I would say this book is good for grades 3-5, definitely middle grade.
Based on Linda Chapman’s own experiences with nannying a pony-obsessed little girl, My Secret Unicorn follows a young girl named Lauren and her pony named Twilight, who is secretly her unicorn.
Now, I enjoyed this book series as a kid. I recall reading each book when I was in Year 3. I decided to re-read the whole series again to see if it holds up, but I am afraid that it does not. First of all, there are the characters in the book series. Explaining the plot further, A nine-year-old girl named Lauren Foster moves with her family from the city to Granger’s Farm, where she meets a bookstore owner named Mrs Fontana who gives her a book about Arcadia and unicorns. After buying a pony named Twilight from an auction, Lauren finds out from her unicorn book that there are key ingredients and steps to unlocking her secret unicorn: a moonflower petal must fall when the first evening star arrives while she recites a “Turning Spell” and an “Undoing Spell” that can change him back to a pony. After this first time, Lauren only has to recite the secret spell without anything else. There is much more to the lore of the series, (like Arcadia itself, how the unicorn cycle works and the magic system) but that is a general idea.
Lauren Foster is a very flat and sometimes unlikable character. She has nothing that defines her besides being horse-obsessed, and she often makes brash decisions that cause more trouble than what is needed, such as arguing with Twilight or her friend Mel whenever they are stuck in a snowstorm or fire hazard. Not only that, but the book series also focuses too much on Lauren - almost at times pushing Twilight aside. For example, in Book #9 Snowy Dreams, Twilight learns about the time limit regarding Unicorns Friends where he will eventually have to choose between returning to Arcadia or staying with Lauren, but we only see this from Lauren’s point of view on how she feels rather than Twilight’s point of view.
Twilight is a boring character. All he is defined is as Lauren’s unicorn friend. Furthermore, because he is dull as a funeral service on 0.25x speed, I cannot grasp the relative importance of any of his problems – however few there are. It is not Twilight’s fault, though; he has an excellent setup to do something interesting. However, the book series is more worried about Lauren and her problems.
There is also missed potential with other characters. After reading Book #10 Twilight Magic where Lauren saves Jade, I thought the next book would have been about Lauren and Mel making friends with Jade and Monica, finally putting their rivalry to rest and getting to know them better. However, it did not do that. There is also a bully girl named Kate in Friends Forever, who excludes Lauren from her circle of friends when Mel reunites with them. While Kate does do some genuinely terrible things (such as moving the flagposts in a game of Capture The Flag), she does not have as much character as she should have. If Kate was more manipulative and gaslight Lauren and Mel into thinking they should not be friends, then she could have been a more genuine threat. There is also another Unicorn Friend named Michael who is one of the few people that knows that Twilight is a unicorn, but the series does nothing with him.
Not to mention, the magic system in the series (as well as keeping Twilight a secret) gets increasingly inconsistent and contrived. For example, in Friends Forever Book #7, Twilight is turned into a unicorn in broad daylight in a clearing where anybody could see what was happening, but nothing comes of this. Another example is Book 13# Moonlight Journey, where we finally get to see Arcadia, but much of Arcadia feels unexplored, underdeveloped, and the illustrations make Arcadia look bare and boring. It does not help that the book series rushes over all the fantasy elements like they are not much of a big deal, which undermines the magical value of what we are experiencing. What is Arcadia, and who are The Unicorn Elders? Who is Sidra? Twilight already knows this, but how? How did Mrs Fontanta learn about unicorns? Who invented the Keeper Of Magic system with the magic resources in the first place? Moreover, why can’t we be clued in too? Things feel missing in the book series! It fails to introduce, build or set up any of the concepts.
However, my biggest problem with My Secret Unicorn is that Twilight and Lauren’s relationship does not feel genuine. Sure, they spend plenty of time together, but their scenes feel more forced rather than natural - and the dialogue often feels like the characters are saying what they are expected to say, rather than wanting to say it. For example, Lauren often says that she loves Twilight as both a pony and a unicorn, but because they cannot communicate with each other when Twilight is a pony and only share their most intimate scenes when Twilight is a unicorn, it makes her statement meaningless. Several books will tell you that the success of this duo is due to them working together, but you will quickly see that Twilight does not need Lauren at all. There are times when Lauren is disadvantaged because she does not have magical powers like Twilight, and it feels like the conflict could have been easily solved if Lauren was written out entirely. I am okay with Twilight being an independent hero, but when the book series tells me Lauren and Twilight need each other, I call nonsense on that nonsense! Lauren is treated with much more scene time than she deserves, which ultimately makes the story weaker, despite her lack of strengths or advantages making her useless.
Nevertheless, my last problem with My Secret Unicorn is that I do not understand why Lauren cannot tell anymore about Twilight? If you look at fantasy/supernatural stories regarding secret identities and objects, you realise that they do not keep secrets for the same reason – their reasons need to make sense to the story. For example, Fetlocks Hall kept its unicorn side secret because it wanted to keep itself away from prying eyes and the potential villains could do if that happened – and that made sense because it was a well-respected school with high fees and A-standard students. In My Secret Unicorn, we are never told or shown why Lauren has to keep Twilight a secret. There is nothing at stake if she does since there is no villain or massive threat, there is a memory wipe potion introduced in Book #3 so there is no more prolonged tension in the story. Lauren at the end of the series is given the position of Keeper Of Magic where she has to help and look over other Unicorn Friends (which is barely explained and raises far too many questions) which ruins the point of keeping unicorns secret, to begin with.
Even if we assume that keeping unicorns secret is to protect Lauren’s friends and family, telling certain people would help with that. There are several times where Lauren struggles strictly because no one knows that Twilight is a unicorn, and if she told certain people, it would make her life 10x easier. When you go off of tropes of a genre, but those tropes go against the particular story you’re telling, it feels lazily thought-out.
To conclude, this has been one of the most disappointing childhood revisits I have ever had because My Secret Unicorn does not hold up very well in my eyes. It has unlikeable and underutilised characters, rushed pacing that overlooks essential beats, and an adventure that lacks fun. Everything is hollow, offensive, or unpleasant. I honestly never expected myself to dislike “My Secret Unicorn” before re-reading it. It had a fun idea, but it failed in its execution.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Geister, welche die Kinder davon abhalten im Wald zu spielen?
Laura und Sternenschweif gehen der Sache auf den Grund!
Zum Inhalt:
Nichts macht Laura und Sternenschweif mehr Spaß als ein stürmischer Ritt durch die Luft. Durch die Luft? Ja, denn Lauras Pony ist ein Einhorn mit magischen Kräften! Bei einem ihrer Luftritte begeben sich die beiden auf die Spur geheimnisvoller Geister, die im Wald ihr Unwesen treiben. Dank Sternenschweifs magischer Fähigkeiten können sie Laura jedoch keine Angst einjagen. Und Waldgeister gibt es ja nicht wirklich, oder etwa doch?
Cover:
Das Cover ist wieder zuckersüß und zeigt bei meinem Band das Einhorn Sternenschweif mit seiner Freundin Laura, wie sie durch die Lüfte fliegen. Das passt sehr gut zum Inhalt der Geschichte und lässt vor allem junge Leserinnen wahrscheinlich zugreifen. Denn wer Pferdegeschichten liebt, der kommt hier voll und ganz auf seine Kosten.
Eigener Eindruck: Bei einem Ausritt kommen Laura und ihre Freundinnen bei einem Wald vorbei in dem es angeblich spuken soll und während die Mädchen sich gruseln, ist es Laura, die bald mit ihrem magischen Pony auf Spurensuche geht, denn Sternenschweif ist in Wirklichkeit ein Einhorn – aber das ist natürlich streng geheim.
Der vierte Band der Sternenschweif-Reihe liest sich wieder sehr einfach und ist perfekt für junge Leser und Pferdefans. Außerdem geht es in diesem Band um die Thematik des Mobbing, was ich sehr wichtig finde und was auch immer ausführlich behandelt werden sollte, jedoch ist das in diesem Buch irgendwie nicht so gut gelungen, denn die Kinder sitzen das alles aus anstatt sich an einen Erwachsenen zu wenden. Das ist alles ein bisschen unglücklich gelöst und hat mich persönlich recht missmutig zurückgelassen, vor allem weil es halt auch nicht richtig aufgeklärt wird. Das sendet für mich die falschen Signale. Außerdem – und das empfinden wahrscheinlich nur Erwachsene so – ist mir das Pferdchen einfach zu perfekt. Es gibt ja nichts, was es nicht kann. Klar, immer weiter, immer besser, für alles gibt es eine Lösung. Aber dieses Überperfekte ist leider dann doch ein bisschen zu viel. Tja udn dann kommt hier aber leider auch wieder das Thema auf, dass die Handlung am Anfang hauptsächlich wieder aus Wiederholungen udn Erklärungen zum Einhorn bestehen, die man eigentlich schon aus den anderen Bänden kennt. So kann man auch Seiten füllen.
Fazit:
Überperfektion beim Pferd, leider aber Totalversagen beim Thema Mobbing. Von mir gibt es dieses Mal eine neutrale Bewertung. Pferdefans, vor allem die ganz kleinen Leser werden es aber wahrscheinlich wieder lieben.
I read two books in one, Starlight Surprise and Stronger Than Magic.
A girl who loves ponies has managed to get a grey pony which can turn into a unicorn. She has to keep this secret and the unicorn can fly and do various magic as well as talking , though not while he is a pony. I enjoyed other books in this series more because there was more about pony care. These books are mostly about flying around and trying to help other kids, while sometimes getting it wrong. We could take the message of Stronger Than Magic to be that it's not always good to eavesdrop, even with good intentions, and that any pony should not be overworked. Starlight Surprise deals with a spooky tree house and school bullies. Best for readers who are girls under ten.
Laura befürchtet, dass wenn sie zu viele Gute Taten begeht muss sie Sternenschweif früher abgeben und verkürzt so ihre Zeit mit Sternenschweif. Deswegen entschied sie sich kürzer Hand dazu ihrem Bruder nicht seinen Stoffesel von einem Baum zu holen nachdem eine Gruppe fieser Jungs ihn dort hoch warfen. Schnell plagt Laura das schlechte Gewissen und sie holt ihn doch, obendrauf erschreckt sie die gemeinen Jungs ordentlich und sichert somit allen Zugang zum Baumhaus um das die Jungs vorher Geistergeschichten erzählt haben um es für sich zu haben.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
OK, so Mrs. Fontana definitely has a psychic link with her dog. Cool cool, good to know.
I can’t say I like the trope of “the magic will disappear when you grow up”, y’know. One of the reasons I adore Cat Valente’s “Fairyland” - she does not pull this. To be fair, Linda’s “Stardust” series does not do this. We’ll see how it plays out.
I read this book when i was about 8, so i really enjoyed them because i love mystic creatures. The developing relationship between the unicorn and the girl made me feel like it was me, because of the way the story was written.
A fun 'end' to the series (well, at least the books that we own). Of course, there are more somewhere out there. Claire loved the added 'suspense' of ghosts (and bullies) and the resolution was well done for the sense of well being of a 6 year old. :)
I loved these books as a kid, enough said. Though not the meatiest reads, I still loved them when I was really young and actually owned two or three out of this series.