THE KINGDOM KEEPERS

When Finn is selected as the model for a holographic guide in the Magic Kingdom, he never imagines it will pit him against the evil forces plotting to destroy Disney World. Along with the four other teens who act as Disney’s holographic hosts, Finn appears in the Magic Kingdom in his dreams. There, an old Disney Imagineer tells the five they have been specially selected to save Disney World. The evil forces of the Overtakers—Disney’s villains, led by the witch Maleficent of Sleeping Beauty—are coming to life to destroy first the Magic Kingdom, and then the world. Luckily, Walt Disney wrote a riddle long ago that can be solved to defeat the Overtakers. As they study the puzzle, the heroes battle witchcraft and living animatronics in the theme park’s after-hours. Though the adventure makes cunning use of Disney’s mythos—a scene in which the “It’s a Small World” dolls attack the adventurers while singing their famous song is chilling—flat characters and an anticlimactic finale detract from the cleverness. (Fantasy. 11-13)