Unicorn Academy 10 – Freya and Honey

Julie Sykes' Freya and Honey is a cosy, slightly spooky unicorn story for 7 year olds about a girl who's happiest with a screwdriver in her hand.

What happens

Freya loves making things work. In the obstacle race at the start, everyone else fumbles about with long spoons trying to get a ball out of a tube. Freya sends Honey off for a mouthful of bird-bath water and simply floats it out!

Now she's building her biggest invention yet. It's a robot unicorn that will fetch Honey treats whenever she wants, and it's a present for Honey's birthday in three days' time.

Freya's secretly hoping the surprise will be so perfect that they finally bond (she and Violet are the only ones in Diamond dorm still waiting). So nobody can know about it. Not even Honey.

That's where it starts to go wrong. Freya keeps vanishing to her workshop, and Honey decides she must like her invention more than she likes her. Ouch.

Meanwhile there's a LOT going on. Rosa is planning a secret midnight party in the barn, with a spooky theme and leapfrog over giant purple pumpkins. A wall at the back of a cupboard spins round into a hidden tower room. The pumpkins explode. And something moans "whoooo" from behind a boarded-up fireplace.

Is it the school ghost? Freya's quite sure ghosts don't exist (well, mostly sure).

The best bit is being inside Freya's head. She'll happily spend two hours working out why her robot keeps driving in circles. She'll wriggle out of a hug. And telling Honey how much she loves her is SO much harder for her than building a robot.

Who hasn't kept a surprise so carefully that it ended up hurting someone? If your child tends to keep their feelings tucked away and let the things they make do the talking, they'll probably see a lot of themselves in Freya.

This is book ten, and Freya has shared a dorm with bossy Rosa for ten months by now. Earlier mysteries get a quick recap along the way. If your reader would like Diamond dorm's year from the very beginning, that starts with Rosa and Crystal.

What to read next

If it's the inventing they love, try Ada Lace, on the Case. Ada is stuck indoors with her leg in plaster and a room full of homemade gadgets, and a neighbour's little dog seems to have disappeared.