When you have children who are just starting to enjoy reading, they'll often ask you to read books that they enjoyed. It's difficult to read books written for young children unironically, but I've tried to do that in this case.
There is something very impressive about the bait and switch performed here. Looking at the cover above, you'd never suspect that the kitten in that picture is actually Prince Flame, a mighty magical lion, and that he's transformed himself into a magical kitten and is hanging out at summer camp, performing routine mischief like impromptu rainstorms and dessert mishaps, to avoid his evil uncle Ebony, who's trying to kill him in order to take his throne. Sort of like Hamlet but with magical kitten kings.
The royal intrigue mostly serves as a prologue and epilogue, and, at one point, a plot convenience to remove Flame from the story briefly to allow complications for the protagonist, Kara. Kara is at her first summer camp, where she's met a couple new friends, Cherry and Felicia. She's trying to have a good time and relax in spite of her horse, Amber, having injured her leg only days before camp. Her situation is complicated further when a couple boys, Dan and Nathan, decide to bully her and her friends. And into this setup comes the magic kitten. Flame's magic is not so much a plot driver as a plot resolver: he causes Nathan to pour pudding on his head, ending some harassment; he dries and replaces sheets soaked by the boys, soaking them in the process, and, of course, in the end, he heals Amber's leg. I was impressed, however, that Benton successfully orchestrates a setpiece involving a beloved teddy bear, a canoe trip, and Flame in such a way that Kara herself has to resolve the situation. It made sense and was even a little exciting.
Aside from the plot, there's not a lot to talk about in books like this. I did wonder if the royals plot is something that will actually be resolved at some point, given that this is the 10th book in the series, and it bookends this story without actually progressing at all--perhaps it functions only as a framing story to allow the series a little more tension than it would otherwise have. The writing is fine and functional and my 8-year-old loves it. There aren't any toxic messages about race, class, weight, or sex, and there's a lot of friendship stuff. Overall, it's pleasant fluff, like Flame, even if it does have a lion prince at the center.
1 comment:
This is your first review of the year.
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