Unicorn Academy 3 – Ava and Star

Julie Sykes' Ava and Star is a gentle unicorn adventure for 7 year olds about a girl who knows every plant on the island and still thinks she isn't clever.

What happens

Ava loves nature more than anything. She rescues the worms while she digs, grows her own herbs and wakes her unicorn at dawn just so they can watch the sunrise together.

Star loves gardening too (she's also VERY clumsy). Ava adores her. But three months into their year at Unicorn Academy, Star hasn't found her magic and the two of them haven't bonded. Ava quietly wonders if that's her fault.

That's because reading and writing are really hard for Ava. The words wriggle about on the page. Only her best friend Sophia knows, and Ava has decided it means she's slow.

Then the sky berries start running out. They're the unicorns' favourite food and they keep their magic strong. Every bush near the school shrivels overnight, the berries are rationed and unicorn magic is banned. The teachers say there are none left in the mountains. Ava isn't so sure.

What's lovely is how often Ava turns out to be right. On a school scavenger hunt she's the one who knows where to find knitbone and fox fur. When Valentina screams at a harmless cave spider and throws a stick at it, Ava climbs a tree to rescue the poor thing (Valentina gets a proper telling off).

Every time her friends call her clever, Ava decides they're just being kind. Who hasn't done that? It's very easy to root for her.

Later on things get properly tense. Ava follows her instincts east into the mountains with Sophia, and the plants there have been enchanted. Creepers grab at the unicorns' legs and one wraps itself tightly round Ava. It's gripping, and a sensitive reader might like you close by for that bit.

This is the third Unicorn Academy book. The island, the lake and the bonding are all explained again early on, so it works fine on its own.

What to read next

If you've got a reader who'd rather be outside looking under logs than sitting at a desk, Ava will feel like a friend. And if they'd like to see where her friendship with Sophia began, the very first book, Sophia and Rainbow, starts on the day the two girls arrive at the academy and meet.