The second book in a glorious adventure! Lauren knows that her pony possesses the magic of unicorns, but now she must learn how to use the magic - and how to keep Twilight's powers secret.
Lauren's pony Twilight changes into a unicorn when she whispers the magic words, but Lauren must keep this a secret or it could put Twilight in great danger. When Lauren learns that her friend Mel's pony can't jump, she wants to help. Shadow is afraid, so Lauren and Twilight visit him secretly and use Twilight's magic to give Shadow the confidence to begin to overcome his fear. Then one night a powerful storm leaves Mel and Shadow trapped in a barn, when lightning strikes. Will Shadow be brave enough to save them both?
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.
Das war ein süßes Lesevergnügen! Im zweiten Band der Reihe geht es natürlich wieder um Laura und ihr neues Pony, welches durch einen Zauber zum Einhorn wird. In diesem Band findet Laura eine neue Freundin, die jedoch sehr traurig ist, weil ihr Pony Silver einfach nicht springen mag. Gemeinsam mit "Sternenschweif" überlegt Laura, wie sie Mel und Silver helfen kann. Ein süßes Buch und eine wirklich schöne Geschichte! Mir hat gut gefallen, dass es viel um Freundschaft, Hilfsbereitschaft und auch Mut geht. Dabei ist alles sehr kindgerecht erzählt mit einer Prise Magie; einfach zauberhaft. Ich glaube, hätte ich das Buch als Kind gelesen, hätte ich es geliebt und sofort die ganze Reihe lesen wollen :)
Unicorns are all the rage with children at the moment and this is my second unicorn related book I’ve read. We follow Lauren as she discovers her pony Twilight has unicorn powers. The story is a bit farfetched, although charming all the same. The illustrations are just stunning.
We bought 2 of the books in this series for 10 cents each. Daddy has been reading them to Ellie each night before bed and she loves them. She is requesting the next book in the series so I am on the hunt for her :)
Sternenschweif #02: Sprung in die Nacht von Linda Chapman Zum Inhalt: Nach ihrem Umzug gewinnt Laura schon bald eine neue Freundin, Mel, die auch ein Pony hat. Doch das traut sich nicht, über Hindernisse zu springen. Und dabei steht ein Springturnier vor der Tür, an dem Mel und Laura gerne teilnehmen möchten. Lauras sehnlichster Wunsch ist es, ihrer Freundin mit Sternenschweif und seinen magischen Kräften zu helfen. Ein spannendes Abenteuer beginnt ... Eine spannende und magische Geschichte mit viel Platz zum Träumen! Cover: Auch das Cover des zweiten Bandes aus der Feder von Linda Chapman ist wahrscheinlich der Traum aller einhornliebenden Mädchen und hat sofort einen absoluten Wiedererkennungswert für die Geschichten rund um Sternenschweif, weil es einfach so schön kitschig ist, dass man Zahnweh davon bekommt. Zu sehen ist hier auf blauem Grund das Einhorn Sternenschweif, wie es steigt. Sehr schön gemacht, sehr passend. Eigener Eindruck: Nachdem Laura das Geheimnis ihres grauen Ponys Sternenschweif entdeckt hat, kann sie es kaum erwarten nachts zu ihm zu schleichen und ihn in ein Einhorn zu verwandeln. Ein Geheimnis, welches sie unbedingt für sich behalten muss. Noch immer kann sie nicht so wirklich glauben, welch ein Glück sie hat. Als ihr Vater vorschlägt sie mit zum Nachbarhof zu nehmen, wo sie das pferdebegeisterte Mädchen Mel kennen lernen soll, ist Laura Feuer und Flamme, jedoch ein bisschen besorgt, ob sie sich verstehen werden. Die Zweifel sind aber schnell beiseite gefegt und die beiden Mädchen üben im Pacours für das anstehende Turnier im Ponyclub. Doch als es darum geht zu Springen verweigert Mels Pony den Sprung, wie so oft und das Mädchen ist todunglücklich, da sie von Sternenschweifs früherer Besitzerin immer wieder deswegen gemobbt wird. Laura verspricht ihr mit ihr eine Lösung zu finden, doch auch ihr magisches Einhorn Sternenschweif weiß sich nicht wirklich einen Rat – oder doch….? Diese Geschichte aus der Feder von Linda Chapman war wieder einmal zuckersüß und ich denke, dass vor allem junge Leserinnen hier sehr begeistert sein werden, weil die Geschichte alles hat, was eben eine gute Pferdegeschichte ausmacht. Es geht um Freundschaft, Mut und natürlich um Pferde/Einhörner. Was will ein junges Mädchen also mehr? Für mich als erwachsenen Leser hätte die Geschichte gut und gerne noch ein bisschen mehr Details und Spannung haben können, aber die Werte die hier vermittelt werden erachte ich als sehr wertvoll und deshalb würde ich das Buch ohne zu Zögern verschenken. Eigentlich wäre fast zu überlegen, ob ich das Buch für unseren Krümel besorge, aber da müssen wir erst einmal abwarten ob einmal das Interesse für Bücher und Pferde bestehen wird. Kann man über kitschige Magie und Mädchenträume hinweg sehen, dann bekommt man hier wirklich ein ganz besonders schönes Buch geliefert. Fazit: Auch der zweite Band kann überzeugen und wartet mit Freundschaft und einer Geschichte rund um Mut und natürlich jeder Menge magischen Einhornspaß auf. Zuckersüß. Gesamt: 4 von 5 Sterne Daten: ISBN: 9783440156476 Sprache: Deutsch Ausgabe: Fester Einband Umfang: 128 Seiten Verlag: Kosmos Erscheinungsdatum: 09.12.2016
I love it I love how unicorns how powers to help other animals that are scared of something or hurt.just I love animals I hate when they get hurt. I love how people or people help animals like in this story as an example , the girls friends horse is afraid to jump bc it got hurt jumping one time, and the unicorn and the girl come over every night and help and one night at a storm the girls friends barnhouse catched on fire and the kittens that she had were trapped in the fire so the girl went in and couldn't get out and the only way she could get out is the horse had to jump but he finally jumped so this a very good story to read if you love animals I love then and this story!!!
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.
Another fun installment. Now, admittedly, if I were rating this for myself, it probably wouldn't be five stars. However, given the sweet smiles and happy sighs of Claire as I read this--it might just merit five stars from me, too, on 'happy daughter merit' alone! A cute story of a girl with her unicorn and how they help a friend's horse learn to jump without fear. Good clean 6 year old girl fun! :) On to book three now...
"My Secret Unicorn," is a great book about a little girl, named Lauren. Lauren has a pony named Twilight, and when she says the magic words, Twilight turns into a unicorn. Lauren and Twilight go on adventures and help other ponies in the neighborhood over come there fears. I would recommend this to an young reader that loves horses.
One of the few books I actually really enjoyed as a child, and that I still remember! I've rated it from how much I enjoyed it all those years ago. Not sure I'd re-read it. Don't want to spoil the magical memories!
My favorite part is when Shadow jumped over a log and saved Mel's life. Also, I liked when Shadow went over all of the fence's without knocking any of them done.
My 7 year old daughter and I are really enjoying this series. This one was actually very exciting in the end and I have to say I've even got drawn into the storyline.