Kingdom Keepers III

Gr 5—8—In Ridley Pearson's third installment (Hyperion, 2010) of the Kingdom Keepers saga, the five teenage Disney hologram guides (DHIs) are once again transported at night into Disney World to solve a crime. When the Disney Imagineers originally developed the holograms out of real teenagers, they didn't know Finn, Philby, Willa, Charlene, and Maybeck would be able to cross over into the park when they went to sleep at night. During the day, the park offers its world-famous adventures, but at night it's plagued with evil doers. The DHIs discover that their mentor and head Imagineer, Wayne, is being held hostage somewhere in the park. A close friend's dream points them to the Hollywood Studios and Epcot, but a lost remote, used for getting them out of the park, takes away their ability to return to their sleeping bodies and traps them as holograms. They enter the rides hoping to discover clues along the way, but danger awaits them at every turn. The villains are deliciously evil, making their ultimate defeat all the more urgent. This volume can stand along, but the story line begins with events in the first two books. MacLeod Andrews gives the characters distinct voices and conveys the thrill of the chase. The behind-the-scenes interaction with Disney World makes these stories unique.—Robyn Gioia, Bolles School, Ponte Vedra, FL