Unicorn Academy 13 – Lily and Feather

Julie Sykes' Lily and Feather is a Unicorn Academy story for 7 year olds about a very quiet girl who's sure she was invited to unicorn school by mistake.

What happens

Lily has wanted to go to Unicorn Academy for ages. Now she's standing outside it with her mum and her stomach is in knots. Everyone else looks SO confident. What if she isn't good enough and gets sent home?

Then come the unicorns. Every new student is paired with one, and Lily spots hers before any names are called. Feather is hanging back behind the others and peeping out from under her forelock. She looks like she doesn't think she belongs there either.

They're a lovely pair. Lily has never had a best friend before, and she can tell Feather anything without worrying how it sounds.

Her new dorm are a noisy bunch. Aisha hums wherever she goes, Zara fancies herself as a detective and Phoebe talks as if every sentence ends in an exclamation mark. Lily really likes them. She just never knows what to say.

Then purple tornadoes start tearing across Unicorn Island. One wrecks houses in Lily's own village (nobody's hurt, but her mum has to move in with an auntie). The teachers are whispering about dark magic. And it's quiet Lily who spots that the tornadoes are zigzagging straight towards the school.

Lily's shyness feels very real. She has a good idea at dinner and keeps it to herself in case it makes her look silly. Haven't we all done that?

It's worth knowing about the teasing. Two girls from another dorm call her Lily Mouse and squeak at her whenever they pass. Later one of them is rude about Feather's brand new magic, and Lily can't get a single word out to defend her. If your reader is on the quiet side themselves, that bit might sting.

It's also the bit that changes things. Lily says a proper sorry (with a paper unicorn she's folded herself) and promises to be braver. There's a very happy breakfast afterwards, with scrambled eggs floating in through the barn door.

This is book 13, but Lily and her friends are all new on the first page, so nothing needs explaining. The girls do chat about what went wrong at the school in earlier years. If your reader wants those books unspoiled, read them first.

What to read next

If the unicorn pairing is the part they love, try First Term at Tall Towers by Lou Kuenzler. Grace is the thirteenth princess in a class meant for twelve, and she'll be sent home unless a unicorn chooses her.