My Secret Unicorn is a series of children's books by Linda Chapman.
Nine-year-old Lauren Foster and her family have just moved from the city to Granger's Farm so her father can pursue his dream of being a farmer. Lauren's parents promise to buy her a pony, which she's wanted her whole life. Lauren picks Twilight, a small, ordinary-looking gray pony. But she soon discovers that Twilight isn't just a pony — he has the ability to turn into a unicorn when Lauren says the magic spell. The series follows Lauren and Twilight's adventures.
The books in the series
- The Magic Spell
- Dreams Come True
- Flying High
- Starlight Surprise
- Stronger Than Magic
- A Special Friend
- A Winter Wish
- A Touch of Magic
- Snowy Dreams
- Twilight Magic
- Friends Forever
- Rising Star
- Moonlight Journey
- Keeper of Magic
- Starry Skies
My Secret Unicorn contains examples of:
- Alpha Bitch: Jade Roberts, who's Lauren's new classmate at Silver River Elementary, is a spoiled rich kid who used to own Twilight, but who didn't like him because he was too quiet and wasn't flashy enough. Her dad got her a new pony named Prince, after which she almost completely ignored Twilight. By the time the Fosters buy Twilight from the Robertses in The Magic Spell, Twilight is dirty and neglected. At school, Jade brags about how much better Prince is than the other kids' ponies. In Dreams Come True, she and her friend Monica Corder make fun of Mel Cassidy's drawing of a horse, and Mel complains that at pony club meetings, Jade insults Mel's pony Shadow for being too afraid to jump.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: When Lauren's friends tell her in Starlight Surprise that a tree house in the woods is haunted, she dismisses the rumors right away. Later she acknowledges that she doesn't have any reason to think ghosts don't exist when she knows unicorns do. Although it turns out she's right.
- Bilingual Animal: Twilight can talk to horses by neighing. He can also talk telepathically to any human who's touching him or holding a hair from his mane.
- Blended Family Drama: In Flying High, Jessica Parker's dad is getting married to a woman named Sally. Jessica likes Sally, but she doesn't like Sally's daughter Samantha, and Samantha doesn't seem to like her either.
- Bond Creature: A number of unicorns live on Earth disguised as ponies. All of them are looking for a kind-hearted human who believes in magic and can learn how to turn them into unicorns. When Twilight turns into a unicorn, he tells Lauren that she's now a Unicorn Friend whose purpose is to do good deeds with him.
- Cast from Stamina: When Twilight uses his magic for good, it's replenished immediately, but when he uses it for frivolous purposes it starts to run low, making him feel exhausted. In Stronger Than Magic, Lauren wants to do a good deed, so Twilight uses his magic to spy on all her classmates to see if any of them need help. But since none of them really need help, and since Lauren's intervention either does nothing or makes their minor problems worse, Twilight uses up all his magic and falls ill. When a real emergency occurs, Twilight has no magic left to help.
- Cat Scare: In Starlight Surprise, Mel, Jessica, and Lauren's little brother Max think a tree house is haunted. Lauren rides Twilight towards the tree to prove it's safe. Then something leaps out of the pushes at them. Twilight rears in fright before he realises it's a cat.
- Emotion Control: This is one of Twilight's powers. He discovers it in Dreams Come True when he touches the pony Shadow with his horn, which gives Shadow the courage to overcome his fear of jumping.
- Figure It Out Yourself:
- In The Magic Spell, a former Unicorn Friend named Mrs Fontana gives Lauren a book called The Life of a Unicorn that partly explains how Lauren can free Twilight's powers, but doesn't contain the Turning Spell that she needs. Lauren asks Mrs Fontana what the spell is, but Mrs Fontana says that she'll have to find it for herself. While Lauren is reading the book, Twilight nudges the last page with his muzzle, showing her that the last page is glued to the back cover. When Lauren peels the page back, she finds the spell.
- In later books, Mrs Fontana won't give Lauren and Twilight concrete advice for how Twilight can use his powers. In Starlight Surprise, she tells Lauren why she's so secretive: being on Earth is a test for Twilight, if he does really well he might get to become a Golden Unicorn when he goes back to Arcadia, and Helping Would Be Killstealing.
- Gang of Bullies: Starlight Surprise has Nick, Dan, and Andrew, three boys who go to Lauren's school. They knock Jessica over in the hall, steal the girls' shoes at the creek, throw Max's stuffed donkey into the tree next to the 'haunted' tree house, and pretend a tree house is haunted so they can scare the other kids away from it and have it all to themselves.
- Healing Hands: Twilight has this power. He discovers it in Starlight Surprise when Lauren cuts her hands on some brambles and Twilight touches her with his horn, healing the scratches.
- Heroic Fire Rescue: In Dreams Come True, tree is struck by lightning and falls on the Cassidys' barn with their cat Sparkle and her two kittens inside. Sparkle escapes carrying the kitten Star, while Mel and Shadow go back in to rescue the other kitten, Midnight. Before they can leave the barn, a burning branch blocks the entrance. Shadow overcomes his fear and leaps over the burning branch, carrying Mel and Midnight to safety.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Twilight has this problem after he first transforms into a unicorn. He figures out how to fly right away (although his first flight is awkward and unsteady), but although he knows he has other powers, he doesn't figure out how to use them or even what they are until later books.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: In Flying High, Mrs Fontana teaches Lauren to make a magic potion that can make people forget that they ever saw a unicorn, in case she has a really good reason for showing Twilight to someone else.
- Licked by the Dog: Jade could barely get Twilight to do anything she wanted. But when Lauren rides Twilight, he's so obedient she feels like he can read her mind.
- Magic Mirror: Arcadia, the land of the unicorns, is ruled by seven Golden Unicorns, who watch Earth through a magic mirror.
- The Magic Spell begins with the Golden Unicorns watching Twilight through the mirror and wondering if he'll ever find his Unicorn Friend.
- In Flying High, Lauren and Twilight discover that when Twilight touches his horn to a rose quartz rock, it turns into a magic mirror, as long as Lauren made a wish about what she wants to see first. She can use it for Surveillance as the Plot Demands.
- Moving Angst: Samantha from Flying High is upset about leaving the city and all her friends behind and moving to the country to be with Jessica and her dad.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: In Starlight Surprise, Nick, Dan, and Andrew pretend the tree house is haunted by waving a sheet out the window and making ghostly noises with a toy microphone. Twilight gets revenge by swooping out of the sky over Dan's head and then making clopping noises in the bushes. The boys flee in terror from what they think is the Headless Horseman. Lauren knows the masquerade is safe because no one will believe them.
- Security Blanket: Max has a stuffed donkey named Donkey. When he was younger, he carried it everywhere. Now that he's six, he pretends he's too old for stuffed animals, but he still sleeps with Donkey. When the kids go to look at the haunted tree house, Max secretly packs Donkey to make him feel safe. When the bullies throw Donkey into the tree, Max is heartbroken until Lauren gets it down for him.
- Sneaking Out at Night: Lauren often sneaks out after bedtime for adventures with Twilight.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: In Flying High, Jessica's older stepsister Samantha acts sullen all the time. She briefly gets excited about meeting Twilight, but quickly goes back to acting totally uninterested. Much to Jessica's frustration, she always gets her way, which is why the family goes to the mall almost every day even though Jessica wants to do other things. It turns out that the reason she acts like that is because she's sad about moving.
- Training the Pet: In Stronger Than Magic, Max is upset because his puppy Buddy hasn't learned to fetch, unlike the other puppies in training school. Lauren teaches Buddy to fetch for him, but Max is furious at her for butting in on something he wanted to do for himself.
- Welcomed to the Masquerade: Mrs Fontana knows all about unicorns. After Twilight transforms for the first time, Mrs Fontana tells Lauren that she must never tell anyone else that Twilight is a unicorn, because people might want to use his powers for evil.
