Prepare to go back to the Disney Parks through the imagination of Ridley Pearson with his newest book in the Kingdom Keeper franchise Kingdom Keepers Inheritance: The Shimmer. Set decades into the future, we’re not entering the Disney Parks that we know but rather a world of maybe and yet to come.
The heroics of the five Kingdom Keepers who battled the Disney villains to save the parks is now an urban legend recounted by local teens Set in the distant future, the five heroes Finn, Willa, Philby, Maybeck, and Charlene, have all grown up. They all have all settled into their middle age lives living in the CommuniTree at Epcot, and their past exploits are but a fading memory.
When Finn and Amanda’s son Eli opens a portal between worlds and is promptly kidnapped by unknown beings, the past comes back to haunt the Keepers and forces the adults to be honest with their kids and gear up for another battle to save the Disney Parks.
As a fan of the series, I was excited to see this new installment come out. Pearson has done a masterful job of being one of the first authors to dive into the Disney Parks and weave incredible tales with his characters in a world that is cherished by people all over the world. Growing up in the late 80’s early 90’s, I would have loved a book series like the Kingdom Keepers to entertain me when our family wasn’t visiting Walt Disney World.
With this new series, Pearson gets a chance to put his own stamp on a well-known world. The fact that he has chosen to show Epcot in a more familiar mold of what Walt Disney had hoped for was a nice compliment to the past and shows what the future may hold for one of the best Disney Parks in the world.
The central arc to the story is that the Disney Company in the distant future has chosen to spotlight the villains again, thus fueling their power and allowing them to gain power causing trouble in the parks around the globe. One would wonder ‘how could they do that’? Simple, people forget. History has proven with countless examples that unless we thoroughly understand, study, and continue to teach our history, naturally we are doomed to repeat it. Pearson reminds the reader throughout the book that the battles between the Keepers and the Villains are legendary, and therein lies the problem which has caused the cycle to repeat.
A legend is a fantastical story that seems impossible to be true. Short attention spans, a willingness for disbelief, and now the villains are once again unleashed. The problem this time is that the adventurous kids of the past are now the worried adults, and it’s their kids who are caught in the middle.
Our new lead, Eli Whitman, is a likable character who will catch the reader’s interest and will most likely lead his friends through countless adventures in forthcoming books. I thought Pearson did a great job in his treatment of the older, wiser, and adult Kingdom Keepers. Kids who once thought of nothing about traveling back in time to Disneyland in 1955 (The Return series, Pearson’s second Kingdom Keepers saga, is fantastic and worth rereading), are now the middle-aged adults who have adult responsibilities.
Have they told their kids about their battles in the past? No, of course not. Why would any parent frighten their child about the dangers of reality, especially in a place that is built on make belief? Seeing how Finn and the rest of the Keepers come to accept their roles in the past, and the importance of sharing their story is an important step in the book.
There are multiple instances where the new main characters comprising Eli and his friends exhibit the classic traits of teens who are uncertain about themselves, whether their looks, their feelings towards others, or their place in the world. These are standard tropes that populate all middle grade novels. It’s a natural part of growing up.
It would be difficult to appreciate yourself if you never knew where you came from. Parents need to talk to their kids. They don’t need to be friends, but they need to be open and communicative. This plot point is explored in detail with the relationship between Finn and Eli. They aren’t best friends but father and son, and sometimes when you protect your kids from the dangers you experience it can create an invisible wall between the parent and child.
Pearson has crafted an incredible tale that not only picks up the themes of his Return series, but also allows fans of the book series to see their favorite characters in a whole new light. The future for the Kingdom Keepers is a different place, but there will always be villains, and there will always need to be someone to keep them in check.
Kingdom Keepers Inheritance: The Shimmer is another wonderful mystical journey in the Disney Parks, this time in the future, where old enemies have risen, and the baton must be passed to a new generation. That doesn’t mean that the heroes of the past can’t come off the bench and help.