Bella's Birthday Unicorn

Unicorn Magic #1

by Jessica Burkhart, Victoria Ying (Illustrator)

It's Princess Bella's eighth birthday, and she is super excited! Not only does she get a whole day of sparkly celebrations, but she also gets a unicorn of her very own--a special gift only royals receive in Crystal Kingdom. 

But her two best friends, Ivy and Clara, are feeling a little left out. And when Bella tries to make them feel like princesses too, it turns into a fight that's bigger than her eight-layered birthday cake. Plus, Bella is worried she might not find her perfect unicorn match after all. Can Bella work her magic and still have the best birthday ever?

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Fantasy, Middle Grade

120 pages, Paperback

First published August 5, 2014

About the author

Jessica Burkhart is the author of the best-selling Canterwood Crest series which has sold over 1.6 million copies in multiple languages. She has also written the Unicorn Magic series, the YA novel Wild Hearts, and edited a YA anthology--Life Inside My Mind.

Reviews

[Agata · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a review of the series, after reading the first 3 books.
The main character in the book is 8 years old. The author has apparently never been around an 8 year old. The character is insufferable and unrealistic, and therefore unrelatable to an average 8 year old: full of teenage drama, immature wine sipping single 40-year old something language (omigosh!) and extremely shallow (a whole chapter about shopping, choosing outfits for a party, nail polish, facial masks, spas and mani and pedicures, while sipping martinis (juice, no alco)? yep!). Basically a child beauty pageant and life's a party mentality. The entire existence of her friends revolves around the main character too - they live to serve her, quite literally. They only attend school for the sole purpose to keep the princess company, including kids 8-14 old who are castle "employees" (child labor?).

If not for the insufferable shallowness of the characters, the main plot would be actually fairly entertaining (an evil queen messes up big events in Bella's life).

The writing is okay, even though uneven: there are chapters that zoom by (she went to the forest all by herself, met the queen, and came back) and then chapters that describe a morning routine down to the last minutiae like turning the door knob to open the door. A lot of the actions don't make any sense either, like the insistence of an 8 year old on going to the forest all alone and lying to everyone about it, under the pretense of avoiding having to answer a question, and her parents being dumb not to realize she's gone, despite "extensive security to keep princess safe".

[Update after Book 4]
The last book teaches 8 year olds that theft is OK and good friends better trespass and steal with you. That is the whole plot of this last book: 8 year old Bella steals a crystal from her parents' castle for her evil aunt and her best friends, also 8 year olds, help her deceive, lie to her parents and search the castle rooms with her. None of them face any consequences. Absolute garbage.

[Maggie Maxfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are a 5-year-old girl, you will adore the characters and squeeeeee when the unicorns appear. You will hang on every word of this cutely-illustrated series. You will ignore that the magic part is really not explained so great, or wonder why everyone in these kingdoms loves royalty so much. Because that is not important. If you are the mom reading this aloud, you will wonder why it takes so many chapters to move the plot along, and then you will pick up the next book in the series and read it to a raptly attentive daughter who is dreaming about getting a unicorn that matches her aura.

[Bekah Page Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This little book doesn't really let you meet any unicorns until the last chapter. This book is very wordy without saying a whole lot of that makes sense. If you've read everything else unicorns this is something to try to scratch that genre itch but for me it fell flat. My daughter wasn't too impressed either but we did finish the book. I don't think we'll read anymore if this series unless she specifically asks for it. The unicorn Diaries are much more fun and even the Princess in Black series while not specifically about unicorns is a much better princess series than this seems to be.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a children's book, this was pretty twisted. Royal family with all the special auras rules over the kingdom where only they can have the special unicorns and all the power. The whole thing with Queen Fire and damning an 8 year old for her entire life. They believed a child was evil and dark and treated her as such because her aura was red. This whole storyline left me really bothered.

[Samantha Newell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love unicorns and this is a good series. I have read this one and the second book but I haven’t read the third or fourth book in this series. To everyone who reads this i hope u enjoy or enjoyed this book.

[Christine Turner]

Kirkus Reviews recommends this book for children ages 6 - 9.

[Maliks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing And Fabulous
and good and Beautiful

[nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

literature at its finest

[Charlie ☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

thought it was good as a kid

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daughter loved it but there were a lot of story gaps and some editing errors. Only okay reading material.

[Ichika27 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book has cute illustrations and it's simple and something little kids would like. The whole thing with her getting a unicorn is nice and I get why she's worried, especially with finding out what happened to the last person who didn't get theirs. It's for kids so I didn't really like it as much (it belongs to my little sis). As such, I'm not gonna complain about the story since I wasn't the target demographic anyways and I wasn't expecting something too deep.

It's kind of annoying how Bella's supposed 'friends' are easily forgiven though. I understand they're jealous and all but it wasn't like they weren't invited to the party - they're just not invited to the parade. The parade for royals. It's a tradition. And yet somehow they don't just want to be invited to a princess' party (which they can attend), they want in on the parade, too even when Bella explain why they can't and they even left her cause of it. They got what they wanted in the end though and were even given nice dresses.

Like, that's the only downside of this cute little book for me cause it felt like they were using her instead of being her actual friend and it's not something I want my sister to think is okay - to have 'friends' who use you for something and leave you if you can't give it to them. Or the opposite to happen with my sister being like that instead.

Over all, even if it's kiddie, it's cute and somewhat enjoyable at some points but it's not something I'd read again due to the above mentioned plot point.

[McKenzie Richardson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book.

This was a cute book with a good world-setup and nice descriptive narration. Perfect easy-to-read format that keeps the reader engaged throughout. Great for young readers.

The only thing that really disinterested me about the book was that it was very, very, very, VERY stereotypically "girlie." We're talking unicorns, dresses, flowers, tiaras, rainbows, etc. Even the problems that Princess Bella faced were horribly "girlie" (her friends are jealous that she's a princess, she's nervous she won't get paired with a unicorn). It would have been nice to see a more well-defined female character. The only time I got really interested was when the mysterious Queen Fire showed up to crash Bella's eighth birthday party in the style of Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Since I have an ARC the teaser for Book 2 was not included, but I would be interested to know the plot of the second one and to learn more about Queen Fire.

The ARC included rough drawings throughout, which looked very promising. I would be interested to see the finalized black-and-white artwork as well.

Overall, a cute book and a nice introduction to a new children's series. Scheduled for release August 2014, this chapter book holds promise for an interesting series.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unicorn Magic is a new intermediate series that has everything that lower elementary school girls will adore. There's a princess living in a magical kingdom in the clouds. She has her own magical unicorn that lives with lots of other magical unicorns. She also has two of the very best friends in the whole wide world. Her parents, the king and queen, are perfect parents even if there is a shadow in their past. The shadow that is soon known as Queen Fire! So maybe everything is not perfectly pink and sparkly in Bella's world?

[Teresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just okay. The writing felt a little stilted, and some of the dialogue seemed unrealistic. The villain comes out of nowhere and then just vanishes again, and you aren't even sure what makes her a villain. And the whole unicorn pairing ceremony was a little weird. But I'm sure that many young girls, especially those who love unicorns, will love this book.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this book because the illustrations were fun to look at. Although I started reading the book for the illustrations, I continued reading it because it made me use my imagination. This is a great book to read, especially for young girls. This book had a few good morals, it taught about the importance of friendship, believing in yourself, and controlling your stress.

[Cammie · Rating 5 out of 5]

very cute book for little girls. Mallory loved it.

[Nicole Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read aloud to my 5 year old. Simple and cute. Unicorns and princess and friends.