THE KINGDOM KEEPERS by Ridley Pearson
    Category:  Fantasy
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 6+
    Release Date:  9/1/05
    Publisher:  Disney
    Reviewed by:  Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
    Rating:  5 Stars


    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 of varied 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.
The Kingdom Keepers
by Ridley Pearson