Unicornia: The Frozen Palace

The next sparkling adventure in the shimmering Unicornia series, featuring a school trip to an incredible frozen palace.

Claudia is going on a school field trip to the wintriest and most incredible place ever: the Frozen Palace. The walls are made of sparkling ice, there are penguins everywhere and you can fly with unicorns, or with reindeer! Without a doubt, this is the most magical place EVER. But when Claudia and her friends get lost, can they find the way out of the palace? Find out in this snow-dusted festive adventure packed with magic, snowflakes, and unicorns.This fifth entry in this early chapter-book adventure series has short, accessible chapters and illustrations crafted with various hues of blue and bright white, appropriate for the winter theme. . . .A tender lesson wrapped up in a winter-wonderland bow.
—BooklistAna Punset is a best-selling author of books for children, including the first two books in the Unicornia series, Unicornia: Learning to Fly and Unicornia: A Magical Birthday. She lives in Barcelona and has always dreamed of flying with unicorns.

Diana Vicedo has been a freelance illustrator for more than ten years. Her illustrations have appeared in children’s books and on designs for children's fashion, games, motion graphics, and apps. She is the illustrator of the first two books in the Unicornia series, Unicornia: Learning to Fly and Unicornia: A Magical Birthday. She lives in Valencia, Spain.Chapter 1: A New Magical Adventure
It’s a brand-new day in the magical city of Unicornia. Here, there’s always a new adventure waiting to happen . . . and today is no different!
Would you like to know what I’m doing?
Let’s see if you can guess!
I’ll give you some clues.
Clue number one: I’m flying, but not on a unicorn. I’m flying . . . in a bus!
But that’s only a little clue, so I’ll give you another.
Clue number two: I’m sitting with my best friends Pippa and Sara (obviously) but we’re not alone. The rest of the class is here with us.
So, have you guessed what’s happening yet?
OK, clue number three: one of our teachers, Miss Florinda, is here too.
Have you got it now?
That’s right!
We're going on a school trip!
You’re probably wondering why we’re flying in a bus and not on our unicorns—but don’t worry, they’re coming too.
Look, can you see them? They’re right here, next to the bus. They wouldn’t miss the trip for anything. It’s just that today we need to stay warm and toasty inside the magical bus, because it’s really, really cold out there—brr!—and we can’t magically warm ourselves up like unicorns can.
If you could go absolutely anywhere on a school trip, where would you want to go?
Here’s a list of incredible places I’d choose:
Super-duper-ultra-cool trip destinations:
-A water park with a zillion slides
-A jungle full of fascinating wild animals
-A kingdom ruled by friendly dinosaurs
-The moon (so I can check i it's really made of cheese)
-Topsy-Turvy Land, where the sky and the ground are the other way around

Right, now think a teensy bit harder, because it actually isn’t any of those.
Remember that where we’re going, it’s reeeaaallllly cold . . .
Oh, what the hoof, I can’t wait any longer! I have to tell you:
WE’RE GOING TO THE FROZEN PALACE!
If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry. I hadn’t either, but the name is another clue. The Frozen Palace is . . . a palace made of ice!
I don’t know what we’ll find inside, but I’m guessing . . . an ice bed? Ice walls? Maybe even an ice kitchen, where you can only make icy things? Ice cream cakes, ice cream sandwiches, iced tea, ice chips!
So that’s why we can’t fly there on our unicorns. We’d turn into ice cubes!
Like I said, unicorns don’t have that problem because, being magical, they never get too hot or too cold. That’s why they’re soaring through the clouds, while Pippa, Sara, and I are sitting inside a flying bus with the rest of the class. We’re so eager to arrive that we start singing to make the journey go faster. Although somebody isn’t quite in tune. It’s my friend Sasha! He’s great at baking, but singing? Not so much.
Then Miss Florinda (we call her Florrie) gets up to tell us about the family that has invited us to the Frozen Palace.
“Their names are Diana, Carlos, and Kiko, and they’re known as the Protectors of the Northern Lands—which is a very impressive title! They’re an incredibly important family.”
Florrie tells us that the palace magically appeared thousands of years ago, after something called the Great Freeze covered the Northern Lands in snow and ice forevermore. The palace is there to make sure that all the creatures in the lands are protected and cared for.
“That’s why it’s so important that you respect the palace and listen to everything the family tells you to do,” Florrie says sternly. As if we’re planning to do the exact opposite! “OK?”
“OK!” we chorus.
Suddenly, Sara nudges me to look out the window, and Sasha practically clambers over me to see outside. We’re nearly there! Oh, it’s so exciting to be in such a magical place. We can’t wait to discover what’s inside the palace. I bet you can’t either!