Unicorn Academy 16 – Aisha and Silver

Julie Sykes's Aisha and Silver is a wintry Unicorn Academy adventure for 7 year olds about a girl so wrapped up in her music that she stops listening to her unicorn.

What happens

Aisha plays the flute, and right now she can't think about anything else. She's writing the music for her dorm's graduation display ride and it's like an itch she has to scratch. Her unicorn Silver would much rather be playing lacrosse (he's the cheerful, confident one).

Then giant hailstorms start smashing up the school. Aisha drifts off during the head teacher's warning because she's busy with her tune! By dinner it's been decided. The academy will close early and graduation is only five days away.

Silver hasn't found his magic yet and the two of them haven't bonded. If it doesn't happen in time, they might have to come back for a second year without their friends.

Her dorm mates Zara, Lily and Phoebe are sure somebody is making the weather go wrong on purpose. Their top suspect is Mr Long, a sniffy school inspector who knows a lot about storms. There's spying from behind hay bales, a detention and one very funny moment in a barn that Aisha wishes she could unsee.

Meanwhile Zara's unicorn Moonbeam keeps having visions of Silver vanishing. Silver is properly scared and wants to talk about it. Aisha says "Mmm" and reaches for her flute. How many of us have done that to somebody we love?

Aisha isn't unkind. She's just so busy with the thing she's brilliant at that she forgets to look up. Your reader will probably spot it long before she does.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The second half is much more dangerous than the cosy start. The girls and their unicorns are whisked off to an icy mountain by a villain who threatens to freeze them one by one. There's a roaring sabre-toothed polar bear, icicles that drop like spears and an avalanche. Each scare is over in a page or two and the friends keep rescuing each other, but a child who worries about being snatched away might want you nearby. If yours loves a proper baddie, they'll be thrilled.

This is the sixteenth book and it comes right at the end of Amethyst dorm's year. Earlier tornadoes, a tidal wave and a drought get talked about a lot, so it isn't the best place to begin.

What to read next

If they haven't met these four yet, Lily and Feather is where their year starts. Lily arrives so shy that she can't get her own name out, and a purple tornado has just wrecked her village.