The Shimmer (Kingdom Keepers: Inheritance Series #1)

by Ridley Pearson

Overview

The first book in a new Kingdom Keepers series.

In the near future, in the Epcot of Walt Disney's imagination, sixty thousand people live in a CommuniTree surrounding the forward-looking Walt Disney World theme park. Five unique families are among the residents—and some of the parents were once known as the Kingdom Keepers. Their identities are carefully guarded in order to raise their children without special treatment, most of the Kingdom Keepers work for the Walt Disney Company, and have settled into "ordinary" and rewarding lives.When a messenger carrying a secret communication coincides with both a solar eclipse and Eli Whitman's thirteenth birthday—a few "ordinary" kids are thrust into a battle to save Epcot and find their friend who has mysteriously disappeared. With their friend missing and their parents acting strangely, the Kingdom Kids discover they are in possession of unusual powers as they forge a bond to rescue their friend and uncover the truth about how real magic has entered their lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781368095143
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/21/2023
Series:	Kingdom Keepers: Inheritance Series , #1
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	77,097
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Ridley Pearson is the award-winning author of the best-selling Kingdom Keepers series along with forty other novels for adults (suspense) and young readers (adventure) including cowriting Peter and the Starcatchers. Ridley spends a good deal of his time sneaking around the Disney parks and aboard the Disney Cruise Line ships all in the name of research.

Hometown:

St. Louis, Missouri

Date of Birth:

March 13, 1953

Place of Birth:

Glen Cove, New York

Education:

Kansas University, B.A., Brown University

Website:

http://www.ridleypearson.com/

Editorial Reviews

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

School Library Journal

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)

Kirkus Reviews