Unicorn Academy 17 – Lyra and Misty

Julie Sykes's Lyra and Misty is a Unicorn Academy treasure hunt for 7 year olds about an adventure-mad girl and a unicorn who'd much rather stay safe.

What happens

Lyra has only just arrived at Unicorn Academy and she already wants to explore all of it. The maze, the cross-country course and especially the woods (which are out of bounds). She's going to be an archaeologist when she's older. She even has an explorer's bag with string, torches and a penknife.

Her unicorn Misty isn't like that at all. She's gentle, she hates making decisions and she's missing her family. Every time Lyra says it'll be fun, Misty gulps.

Then Lyra counts the windows on her tower. There are five and there should only be four. So there must be a hidden room! Behind a tapestry of a crying unicorn there's a secret staircase. Under a floorboard at the top there's a scrap of very old paper.

It's a quarter of a treasure map with a riddle on the back. Who wouldn't want to find one of those?

From there it's echoing caves, friendly spiders with googly eyes and a rainbow-coloured river deep underground. There's also a famous archaeologist who tells the girls the map is worthless and then seems very keen to take it off their hands. Hmm.

The clues are fair, so your reader has a real chance of cracking the riddle before Lyra does.

The best bit is Lyra and Misty, though. Lyra is so set on her treasure that she doesn't notice how homesick Misty is. One evening she snaps and calls her boring. She feels awful straight away (and so she should). What happens very early the next morning, out in the frost, is a lovely scene.

If you've got a reader who charges ahead while a friend or a little sister hangs back, there's something here for both of them.

This is book seventeen, but don't let the number put you off. Lyra and her dorm are brand new students, so it works as a fresh start. The map is in four pieces, though, and the hunt for the rest carries on in later books.

What to read next

Lyra's cousin Scarlett was at the academy a few years before her and has told her all about it. If your reader would like to go back to the very beginning, Sophia and Rainbow is the first book. There's a smiley Scarlett in Sophia's dorm who can't resist a race.