Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark (Hardcover)

~ (Author), David Frankland (Illustrator) "He found himself standing next to the flagpole in Town Square, in the heart of the Magic Kingdom..." (more)
Key Phrases: Magic Kingdom, Main Street, Walt Disney (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8–Using cutting-edge technology, five Florida teens have been transformed into Holographic Hosts at Disney World. Their images appear throughout the Magic Kingdom, giving visitors information about the various attractions. It all seems to be going well, until the participants begin having disturbing dreams that start affecting their everyday lives. They sneak in after the park has closed, and Wayne, a retired Imagineer, directs them in their fight against the Dark Side, embodied by Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. Audio-animatronic pirates from The Pirates of the Caribbean travel through the Magic Kingdom in the little cars from the Buzz Lightyear ride. The dolls from It's a Small World clamber into the boats and start biting the occupants. Cinderella's Castle is filled with an eye-popping array of staircases, à la Escher. There's a certain coolness factor for the notion that people could be both human and hologram at the same time, and the illicit thrill of seeing all the things you don't normally get to see (both real and imaginary) makes this a must-read for serious Disney fans. However, readers never really get to know any of the characters well, except for Finn, the narrator, and the mystery is so convoluted that it's hard to follow, and even harder to care about. Additional.–Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library
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Product Description

When Disney comes looking for five teenagers to serve as actors for a new technology-Daylight Hologram Images, or DHIs-there is more to it than meets the eye. Strange things have been happening inside the Florida park: parts from one ride are found mysteriously moved to another; in the Fantasmic! show, the dragon unexplainably triumphs over Mickey; little blips in story lines and "offstage" antics by characters trouble managers. Finn Whitman, a middle-schooler, goes to sleep one night and has the dream of a lifetime: he "wakes up" inside Disney World as his DHI character, a glowing hologram. He meets an old man there, Wayne, who claims to be one of the original Imagineers and explains to Finn that he "and your friends" have a mission to save the park from forces that humans can neither see nor hear. Not believing his dream, but not totally discounting it, Finn, back in real life, sets out to find the four other kids who were chosen to be DHIs and in doing so he learns an eerie fact: he is not alone in this "dream." The others have had similar experiences. What if this is for real?

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Disney Editions (August 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786854448
• ISBN-13: 978-0786854448
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #360,895 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 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

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.

8 of 8 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 (REAL NAME)

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.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Blake Petit "Novelist, Comixtreme.com columni... (Ama, Louisiana United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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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.