The Kingdom Keepers [Paperback]

Ridley Pearson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Disney Pr (September 1, 2005)
• ASIN: B001EEKLAU
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,265,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ridley Pearson (www.ridleypearson.com), the first American to be awarded the Raymond Chandler/Fulbright Fellowship in Detective Fiction at Wadham College, Oxford University, is the bestselling author of over 35 novels including, Peter And the Starcatchers (co-written with Dave Barry), the young adult novel, The Kingdom Keepers, and two dozen crime novels including: Probable Cause, Beyond Recognition and Killer Weekend (July 2007). His novel The Diary Of Ellen Rimbauer, a prequel to a Stephen King miniseries, was a New York Times #1 bestseller, as was Peter and the Shadow Thieves (#1 for 6 weeks). Ridley adapted The Diary Of Ellen Rimbaurer for ABC Television; it aired in 2003.

Peter and the Starcatchers is to open as a stage play, off-Broadway in March 2011, under Disney Theatrical.

Ridley is a founding member of, and plays bass guitar in, the all-author rock band, The Rockbottom Remainders (www.rockbottomremainders.com), with Dave Barry, Stephen King, Scott Turow, Mitch Albom, Amy Tan and Greg Iles. The band has raised over 2.5 million dollars for charities over its 18 year history.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A book that captures a bit of the Disney magic, November 16, 2005

By 

Gale Zasada "www.brownbookloft.com" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Kingdom Keepers (Hardcover)

Five teens are given the opportunity of a lifetime when they are chosen as interactive Disney Hosts (DHIs) at the famous theme park in Orlando, Florida. Disney has teamed up with a company called Daylight Hologram Imaging to create innovative virtual tour guides, using the teens as models.

Finn Whitman, one of the DHIs, falls asleep one night and has a very weird dream. In this dream, he is in the park talking to an elderly park employee named Wayne, who was also one of Disney's first Imagineers. While Finn is having a very odd conversation with Wayne, he begins to observe some unusual activity in the park. He sees Chip and Dale headed toward Toontown and Goofy going to Frontierland. Now this wouldn't normally be odd in Disneyland, but it is after dark and all of the costumed employees went home hours ago. At this point, Finn is sure he is dreaming because he saw the original cartoon characters. Not only that, but he notices that his own body is glowing. Wayne assures him that it is not a dream, tells him that he must locate the other four DHIs for a special mission.

It seems that the Magic Kingdom is in danger from evil forces within its walls. In order to save the park, Finn and the other DHIs must cross over in their sleep into a state where they are not fully human yet not fully light.

Ridley Pearson does a great job of expressing the thoughts and conversations of his young teen characters. Even as their situations metamorphose into the fantastic, the kids remain completely realistic. Although this book is written for a young adult audience, it would appeal to anyone who has ever experienced the magic and wonder that is Disney.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars After Closing, September 22, 2005

By 

Gene "Utah Booky" (Provo, UT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Kingdom Keepers (Hardcover)

Largely known for his adult suspense fiction, Pearson follows his popular "Peter and the Starcatchers" with this action packed early teen novel. The author dedicates the novel to all of us who've wondered what happens at Disney World once the park closes. Weaving just a bit of high tech into the storyline, this suspenseful plot propels our hero, Finn, and his friends to discover the truth of the magic behind the closed gates of the theme park. While engaging the reader with ideas of holograms as park tour guides and other near future possibilities, "Kingdom Keepers" will keep you reading until the wee hours. Good clean fun and highly recommended for the 10-14 year olds as well as Disney fans of all ages.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable -- will there be more?, February 26, 2007

By 

Blake Petit "Novelist, columnist & reviewer" (Ama, Louisiana United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Kingdom Keepers (Hardcover)

Finn Whitman was one of five teenagers chosen to become the newest attractions at Walt Disney World -- fully interactive holograms to guide visiters around the theme park. But when the children go to sleep, they find themselves "crossing over" into their hologram forms, trapped in the theme park after night, where dark forces are conspiring to take things over. The children learn that beings called the Overtakers are adopting the images of Disney's characters -- particularly their villains -- in a bid for power, leeching on the imaginations of Walt Disney and his Imagineers to become real. But Walt anticipated this day would come, and left clues behind. The only way to save Walt Disney World -- and maybe the entire world -- is to solve Walt's riddle in time.

Ridley Pearson has proven himself (with Dave Barry) to be a strong author of young reader's books in addition to his more well-known adult fiction. With this novel, he actually takes things one step further, setting a fairly satisfying suspense/mystery adventure in Disney World itself. The book (itself published by Disney, thus avoiding any pesky copyright issues) is a quick, fast-paced adventure, and something that fans of Disney and its theme parks will certainly enjoy.

Not to say there aren't any problems. Some of the characters, particularly the girls, are somewhat wooden. There are a few segments where the discussions of the park start to sound like a Disney commercial, but these parts are few and far between -- most of the information doled out is either necessary to the plot or interesting enough that you can forgive the occasional meandering. Pearson leaves the ending fairly wide open -- the Overtakers aren't definitely beaten and there are a dozen questions left unanswered, making it easy to imagine this book is a "pilot" of sorts for a series of young reader's books. As series go, I think this could be a good one. A little more "grounded" than Harry Potter, not as insane as A Series of Unfortunate Events, and with a built-in Disney fanbase, The Kingdom Keepers could well be a pretty entertaining series of novels.