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My Secret Unicorn #6
Freunde im Zauberreich
Als Laura und Sternenschweif zufällig das kleine Pony Mondlicht kennenlernen, gibt es für Laura keinen Zweifel: Auch Mondlicht ist ein Einhorn! Doch wie können seine bislang verborgenen Zauberkräfte geweckt werden? Und wie können sie es schaffen, dass ihr neuer Freund Michael Mondlicht behalten darf. Da hat Laura eine wunderbare Idee ...
112 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 19, 2022
5 people are currently reading
346 people want to read
About the author
Linda Chapman
734 books201 followersLinda 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.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
May 17, 2024
Im sechsten Band der Reihe begegnet Laura einem Pony, das ihrem Pony Sternenschweif sehr ähnelt. Sie ist davon überzeugt, dass auch das Pony Mondlicht ein Einhorn ist. Sie möchte ihm helfen, seine magischen Kräfte zu wecken.
💜 Die Buchreihe ist ideal für kleine Pferdefreunde und für alle Kinder, die Einhörner mögen. Es sind schöne und magische Geschichten, bei denen es um Freundschaft und Hilfsbereitschaft geht. Gefällt mir bisher sehr gut!
💜 Die Buchreihe ist ideal für kleine Pferdefreunde und für alle Kinder, die Einhörner mögen. Es sind schöne und magische Geschichten, bei denen es um Freundschaft und Hilfsbereitschaft geht. Gefällt mir bisher sehr gut!
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January 5, 2025über dieses buch hab ich meine erste buchvorstellung in der schule gehalten (da gab es sogar richtig drama weil eine freundin von mir dann einfach beschlossen hat das sie das gleiche buch vorstellen will und dann war das so ein unausgesprochenes battle)
April 17, 2024
Good ideas but terribly lazy execution. Lauren left her brain cells at home and there were too many coincidences to count. We don’t really get to see much of the “special” friend, either.
August 30, 2020
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.
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.
June 24, 2011
Aww these books remind me of my childhood!
January 22, 2016
They meet another another pony and the pony likes a boy. Since he was adopted boy he likes spending time with ponies and... well you need to read it. It has a nice twist and surprise.
July 26, 2025
Ein zweites Einhorn wird von Laura und Sternenschweif entdeckt, die beiden helfen den anderen. Die Serie bleibt weiterhin sehr altruistisch, aber darum geht es sich auch schließlich. Ich finde es sehr gut, dass in diesem Buch ein weiteres Einhorn dazu kommt. Die guten Taten sind mehr so der Filler hier und die Zauberkräfte und alles bei dem es sich generell um die Einhörner geht, sind die für mich eigentlich interessante. Die Fakten sind immer so ein wenig in den Bänden verstreut. Da ich diese Bücher jahrelang nicht mehr gelesen habe, ist es eigentlich wie etwas zum ersten Mal lesen.
December 6, 2018
I read this as a kid, came across it last week, decided to read it. It's a well written book. I understood exactly what was going on even though I haven't (in the past 15 years) read the earlier books in the series. Recommend to the younger target audience it is meant for, or a re-read for another adult who enjoyed these as a kid.
August 26, 2024
This book is about a girl named Lauren so one day her stepsisters Jessica and Samantha were going to buy a horse so she asked Wheatgrass she could come with them they said yes when they reached the place they met a friendly person he name was Tina she owned the horses she 😁 grinned when when she saw them she asked which horse would you want
January 30, 2024
Liked this one very much! Really really cute hehe
Summary:
- Laura finds a second unicorn
- her friend Jessica got a pony
- we meet Michael, who adopts Mondlicht and finds out about unicorns
- very cute <3
Summary:
- Laura finds a second unicorn
- her friend Jessica got a pony
- we meet Michael, who adopts Mondlicht and finds out about unicorns
- very cute <3
June 30, 2021
Really enjoyed it but I didn’t realise how quickly I read it. 😂
November 17, 2021
Read this to my daughter as a bedtime story. Very cute and my daughter really liked it.
February 10, 2022
Best series of books I've read when I was a teen.
September 26, 2022
4.5 Stars
Read an indefinite amount as a kid.
So fun! I loved it.
Read an indefinite amount as a kid.
So fun! I loved it.
December 11, 2024
This book is a great book for child that is interested in horses and unicorns. I enjoyed it as a quick read
August 9, 2017
This is an enchanting tale for young readers. Lauren has a pony called Twilight who turns into a unicorn and can talk to her.
Lauren meets a small pony called Moonshine at a local riding school. She thinks Moonshine looks so like Twilight that she must be another unicorn. But a different person has to be a unicorn friend for each pony to allow them to change. Then Lauren finds that a boy who is only staying in the area has quietly befriended Moonshine. His name is Michael and his parents want him to be a baseball player instead. Lauren is not allowed to tell anyone about unicorns but she has to think of a way to let Michael know before Moonshine is sold....
I enjoyed it and there is a lot of information about caring for ponies, plus some sensitive handling of young people who don't want to be what their parents want.
Lauren meets a small pony called Moonshine at a local riding school. She thinks Moonshine looks so like Twilight that she must be another unicorn. But a different person has to be a unicorn friend for each pony to allow them to change. Then Lauren finds that a boy who is only staying in the area has quietly befriended Moonshine. His name is Michael and his parents want him to be a baseball player instead. Lauren is not allowed to tell anyone about unicorns but she has to think of a way to let Michael know before Moonshine is sold....
I enjoyed it and there is a lot of information about caring for ponies, plus some sensitive handling of young people who don't want to be what their parents want.
April 1, 2009
A little young for me, but this was very well written. This was my daughter's pick from the library and I was curious so I read the first page, afterwards I realized I was hooked and had to read the rest of it. Well a few hours later I was near tears at the end. Good book.
January 2, 2016
This book was about a pony named Moonshine who Lauren thought was a unicorn like Twilight, in disguise. Lauren needs to find someone to have Moonshine so that she can be turned into a unicorn. I learned to believe. Auryn 12 years old, 2016
November 17, 2009
Done!?
January 14, 2013
WeLl I think the book was really good. I liked the way Twilight and Moonshine turn into unicorns. Lauren had a great unicorn.Well I cant think of any thing to say.But I enjoyed it.
April 4, 2016
Sehr berührend
January 30, 2016
One of my favorites as a little girl! Who doesn't love unicorns??
September 16, 2019
I loved the pictures, which are very realistic. The story was nice and easy to follow, even though it’s part of a series. It’s a story of magic and friendship. Love the ending.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews