Ridley Pearson’s first “Kingdom Keepers” book of nine, is excellent and alluring as he successfully brings his readers into the beloved theme park known as Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Pearson shares his love for Disney with other Disney fans by allowing readers to experience the extraordinary challenges that five young teens (Finn, Maybeck, Philby, Willa, and Charlene) must face. Much like the children’s book “The Little Prince,” readers find a heartwarming connection with the main characters, feeling the same emotions as they go through every twist and turn with the protagonists.

The writer portrays a phenomenal plot twist on who the main characters can trust outside of themselves, Disney Host Interactive Holograms (DHIs). As the series continues, the readers find that the DHI’s find it very hard to trust outsiders and even battle with trusting each other when their DHI creator Wayne poses a riddle foreseeing a traitor that they are close to. The characters find a struggle with finding people to trust with their secret; if told, those people could be put into some sort of danger. The book has many life lessons along with a good story line full of action and wonder. Just like in reality, aside from the “magic” and “evil Overtakers,” this book relates to everybody. Today more and more people find it hard to trust others with things going on in their life and keep “secrets” to themselves, sometimes to protect the ones they love and sometimes for the questioning of whether or not that person will keep their secret safe.

“Disney After Dark” is suspenseful and intriguing as the leader of the five teens, Finn Whitman, pushes the rest of his team to help fight the Overtakers by combining all their strengths to figure out the riddle Walt Disney himself has left for this precise situation. The Kingdom Keepers also help two foreshadowed Keepers Amanda and her sister Jezebel (Jessica). They must save Jez from a curse placed on her by Maleficent. Finn’s character has every reader connecting with his struggles, including every night as he goes to sleep, finding himself awake as his DHIs in Main Street Disney.

Pearson thoroughly gives an abundant amount of true detail found in the Magic Kingdom, not only in the book, but also in real life. He used the rides and attractions seen in the park, whisking away the readers to the actual streets of Disney’s Magic Kingdom. The book sends its readers to a place of wonder and excitement that is also full of magic, from putting you in the seats of “It’s a Small World” to the feeling you get as the DHI’s fear for their lives as they fight pirates from the ride Pirates of the Caribbean and the Almighty Maleficent.

One thing the DHIs come to realize is that they can never give up, no matter how hard the situation is nor the aspect of each challenged faced, they must push past their own fears in order to save the park from dangerous Disney characters along with animatronics found in popular attractions such as Pirate of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain.

Disney is known for being a place of magic and that’s exactly how it is portrayed in the Kingdom Keepers series, giving a twist to the most common rides, making them more dangerous than any Disney lover could ever have thought of.

The diction given by the author is not so scholarly that a younger student would not understand but is a happy medium for adults and young people, giving everybody an enjoyable read of mystery and action.

I would give “Kingdom Keepers I: Disney After Dark” a five-star rating because of the connections I found with the characters and myself throughout the entire story. Pearson’s amount of detail and background knowledge about Walt Disney and Walt Disney World Theme Park itself impressed me, a Disney fanatic, and I found myself entirely plugged into this book. I honestly started reading it and had trouble putting it down through all the adventures the DHI’s go through.