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Title | The Unicorn Princess
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Author | Babette Cole
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Cover Art | Babette Cole
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Publisher | Bloomsbury - 2010
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First Printing | Bloomsbury - 2010
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Title | The Ghostly Blinkers
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Author | Babette Cole
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Cover Art | Babette Cole
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Publisher | Bloomsbury - 2010
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First Printing | Bloomsbury - 2010
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Title | The Curse of the Pony Vampires
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Author | Babette Cole
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Cover Art | Babette Cole
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Publisher | Bloomsbury - 2011
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First Printing | Bloomsbury - 2011
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Title | The Enchanted Pony
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Author | Babette Cole
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Cover Art | Babette Cole
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Publisher | Bloomsbury - 2011
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First Printing | Bloomsbury - 2011
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Category | Middle Grade
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Warnings | None
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Main Characters | Penny Simms, the Fitznicelys, the Fangley-Fitznicelys, Potty Smythe, Sophie
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Main Elements | Unicorn, ghosts, vampires, centaurs
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Website | babette-cole.com
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 The Unicorn Princess
Pony-mad Penny Simms is overjoyed when she wins a place at the pony school Fetlocks Hall. Now she can learn everything about horses! Penny soon finds out that she also has the chance to acquire secret knowledge about horses and discover the magical unicorn world of Equitopia. Penny's arrival at Fetlocks Hall is very timely - is she the Unicorn Princess whose appearance is predicted by the King of the Unicorns? Can she overcome the sinister threat from the Devlipeds and save the unicorns and the pony world?
The Ghostly Blinkers
Penny is thrilled to be back at Fetlocks Hall after the Christmas holidays, but her delight turns to dismay when she realizes the school is in trouble. If some extra funds cannot be found in time, Fetlocks Hall may even have to close! Calling upon her magical powers, Penny embarks on a rescue plan to save the school. Together with the Fetlocks Hall ghosts and the school ponies, Penny is soon caught up in an exciting race to the finish.
The Curse of the Pony Vampires
Trouble is brewing at Fetlocks Hall - there is going to be an inspection! To ensure the school has little chance of passing, the Devilipeds have enlisted the help of the disgusting pony vampires.
Penny has to draw upon all her magical powers as a Unicorn Princess. Will she succeed in defeating the curse of the pony vampires in time to save the school?
The Enchanted Pony
It's Open Day at Fetlocks Hall and all the parents are coming to join in the pony fun. Pip is very upset that her parents can't be there as they mysteriously disappeared two years ago. Penny is determined to find Pip's parents for her.
Together with the Centaureen Sophie - who is half girl half pony - Penny journeys to the enchanged world of Equitopia, where she will need all her magical powers to find Pip's missing parents.
The first one is an interesting introduction to Fetlocks Hall, a pony school where students board, learn to ride and of course do their schoolwork. Sounds like the kind of place I would have loved as a kid! Only this is no ordinary school, turn out they don't just train world class riders but also Unicorn Princesses that have magic that allow them to speak to horses and to get them to fly. Oh, and the school is haunted too, though that is kind of a fixture of magical boarding schools it seems! But it's not enough to have to learn about horses, magic and get your homework done. You also need to save the school from a kind of demonic equine, the opposite of unicorns, called Devlipeds (which unfortunately is a rather hard word to pronounce in one's head, in fact the made up words in this book are equally difficult and awkward).
The second book has very little in the way of magical horses, but the ghostly characters play a much more significant role. And I mean come on, the ghostly blinkers mentioned in the title? They are ghostly bloomers! The author does know how to make a little kid laugh.
The third book mixes in one of my other favorite supernaturals, vampires. Only the Fangley-Fitznicelys are Veggipires! The vampire ponies are another story though, they still have a taste for blood and want to wreak havoc so that when the inspectors come to the school they will close it down.
In the fourth book Penny encounters a centaureen named Sophie, even in a world of unicorns and ghosts, centaurs are rarely seen. Sophie wants nothing more than to be a student at Fetlocks Hall, but Penny is busy trying to find the lost parents of one of her classmates, who may have been taken by none other than another mythical equine!
On the whole, I was fairly neutral towards these books. I certainly would have appreciated them more if I were younger, but as I'm older I've run across a lot more horse/magical school/etc type books that are far better these. They aren't terrible, they just don't stand out. Maybe that's why on Goodreads they aren't even collected together as a series, or even have cover images, or the fact that these books are 10 years old the library books are in near mint condition still stiff and hard to open, as if no one has been reading them. I think little girls would really enjoy this but I don't really recommend them to the adults.
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