School Library Journal
03/01/2022
Gr 3–7—When Eli is celebrating his 13th birthday in the CommuniTree, surrounding the Walt Disney World theme park, something odd happens. He plays a game with a hologram of Jafar, the main antagonist of Disney's 1992 animated feature film Aladdin. However, the hologram comes to life and tries to attack Eli. Thus begins an exciting story of Eli and his friends fighting against Disney villains, and a secret the children's parents have kept for years begins to emerge. For readers unfamiliar with Disney characters (especially villains), the book might not resonate. While the title holds appeal for fans of Disney and sci-fi, it is fraught with gender stereotypes and racism. A boy who dyes his hair is called "a girl," and a man with long fingernails is considered "girly." The author also describes the smell of curried popcorn as "awful," and something so disgusting that the child will not eat even if she is famished. These sentiments are not challenged within the narrative. VERDICT A Disney-infused sci-fi adventure marred by out-of-place and outdated commentary that renders the book ideologically problematic and harmful for young readers; not recommended.—Shuya Su
Kirkus Reviews
2021-12-15
A boy who lives in an elite residential community at Walt Disney World’s Epcot amusement park is unwittingly thrust into a real, magical battle on his 13th birthday.
Eli Whitman has grown up in the Epcot CommuniTree, surrounded by amusement park magic. Unbeknownst to Eli and his friends, their parents are among the fabled Kingdom Keepers, those whose heroics protected the amusement parks from Disney villains in an eponymous prequel series. When Eli attempts to use his father’s real sword in a holographic video game, he accidentally cuts a hole in the space-time continuum and is kidnapped to an alternate-reality Disney version of the real Morocco, where he encounters the descendants of Aladdin and Jafar. Jafar’s grandson Carnius is a powerful sultan plotting to kill the Kingdom Keepers. The fast-paced plot diverges, sometimes confusingly, in numerous directions as it follows Eli, his pals the Kingdom Kids, and everyone’s parents as all try to figure out and defeat the new evil threatening their world. A family tree of the original Kingdom Keepers and Kingdom Kids would have been helpful. Eli’s mother is described as part Asian (the rest of her ancestry is unspecified); his father is White. The depictions of Morocco and the Moroccan characters are reflective of the Aladdin Disney movie universe. A slur for Roma people is casually included without comment.
An overloaded story. (Fantasy. 8-12)
