Book Review: The Hero’s Guide to Saving your Kingdom
In The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, Christopher Healy seems to have distilled all the elements of the most entertaining Disney movies, and then carefully reassembled them into this book, which leaves the famous princesses alone (for the most part) to focus on Prince Charming, or rather Princes Charming, since no less than four young men get saddled with the moniker at the beginning of the story. Irritated by negative-to-nonexistant media portrayal (and the media here means bards' tales), each one decides to change his fate.
Like a well-balanced adventuring party, we’ve got four princes all with distinct (and nicely complementary) strengths and weaknesses. There the bruiser Gustav, who found and lost Rapunzel. Fancy Frederick is the dude who wooed and bored Cinderella. Heroic Liam awoke Sleeping Beauty only to discover that the world was better off with her unconscious. And finally, Snow White’s savior Duncan proves to be a eccentric goofball of the first order, too coo-coo even for her to tolerate for long. (FWIW, Duncan was my favorite.)
When a local witch goes wicked, the four are brought together by chance (or possibly fate). They realize that they must work together to save all their kingdoms, which are, amusingly, all about a day's ride apart. In fact, the geography, like the characters, fit remarkably well into the Magic Kingdom that I love so very much.* Disney references abound, but there are also a few nods to other mythologies, like Star Wars.
Plot? well, the boys run to and fro, getting into and out of scrapes, only to fall into bigger ones...and of course, everything more or less falls into place at the end.
This is a boys’ book, but ironically, the most competent hero/ines and villains are female. Cinderella, having left Frederick to have adventures, takes it upon herself to foil the witch’s plan, totally independent of the boys’ quest. Liam’ little sister, Princess Lila, is a spitfire of a character who sneaks out of her room to battle injustice and restore her brother’s good name. And Rapunzel uses her healing tears to band-aid up anyone who needs it. On the dark side, the witch is the major baddie, but Briar Rose is impressively bitchy as a spoiled brat with too much power.
Despite the grandiose title, the stakes here are not that high, and the plot zips along at a breakneck pace (chapters are often less than ten pages). There is simply no time for boredom. The language works to keep things moving too, with deliberately fast and modern phrasings; at one point, a character squeals “It’s so awesome that you made it!” In tone, it feels closer to Tangled, than say, Beauty and the Beast. Others feel this way too…the movie rights were acquired before the book was even released. (Well done, Mr. Healy!)
In all, the story is light-hearted, good-hearted, and unchallenging without being condescending. It should be fun for fantasy fans, good for reluctant readers, great for boys and girls alike, and even fun for adults (who can enjoy a game of Catch the Reference). Oh, and there's a dragon. Hot-diggidy dog.
*Full disclosure: I am a Disney stockholder, and have been so literally since birth. Thanks, Nana and Grandpa!