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Book Review of Disney After Dark (Kingdom Keepers, Bk 1)

Disney After Dark (Kingdom Keepers, Bk 1)
GeniusJen avatar reviewed on + 5322 more book reviews


Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

Five young teens living in Florida get the opportunity of a lifetime--they're each going to be turned into a DHI, or a Disney Host Interactive, to guide visitors throughout the park. The five teens--Finn, Charlene, Willa, Philby, and Maybeck--are a varied assortment of ethnicities, and all attend different schools. As Maybeck states, they're "the Orlando assortment pack." When Philby points out that DHI also stands for Daylight Hologram Imaging, the kids get a little worried that maybe the people at Disney aren't telling them everything there is to know. And that turns out to be quite an understatement.

One night when Finn falls asleep, he finds himself in the park after closing-- in his DHI, or hologram, body. He meets an old man named Wayne, one of the original Disney Imagineers, who informs Finn that he and his other four DHI friends have been chosen for a mission. A mission to save the park from the Overtakers, a group of once-benign Park characters who have taken on power and are intent on spreading their power outside of the borders of Disney World.

What at first seems like a fantastical dream soon turns to reality, when the attractions at the Park begin coming to life when the DHIs cross over into the Magic Kingdom while sleeping. They're attacked by animatronic pirates from The Pirates of the Caribbean, the dolls from It's a Small World try to capsize their boat, a dinosaur fossil from the Thunder Mountain ride comes to life and starts chasing them. And then there's Maleficent, the witch from Sleeping Beauty, who appears to be all too real--and determined to stop the kids from solving The Stonecutter's Quill, the fable that Walt Disney passed along to save the Park from the Overtakers.

THE KINGDOM KEEPERS is definitely an imaginative read, full of action, adventure, and suspense. For anyone who has ever visited the Magic Kingdom, you'll recognize the settings immediately. Even if you're not a frequent visitor of Disney World, this is one book that will bring the magic--both good and bad--to very realistic life.