The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom

timeking - wow, I never thought THAT would happen! the base of this story is great: about the fairy tale story of Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel. The main charters of each story reject there fairy-tale princes known mostly as "prince". But that is not their REAL name ( thank to the lazy bards). Actually their REAL name are Prince Liam. Prince Frederic. Prince Duncan. Prince Gustav. And they come together when each gets rejected from their princesses. They come to figure out that there is an evil scheme about that they must stop. This is a very good story to read after homework because it helps you to feel energized. Also, if you want to have a laugh read it! It is great to read with a friend, but not with a group. Even though it looks kind of long, it's mediocre and time will fly by when you read it. one of the few flaws is it need less dialogue a bummer is at the end of the series AND book in has a super bad cliff hanger (witch you can call a slope). in other words it has a super bad end. end to the series. I wish he would more books to the series. oh well. -TimeKing P.S. I guess there is still hope he will right more. P.P.S. It has a lot of jokes in it. it is funny... it is very funny.

Starred review from April 2, 2012
Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel—classic stories that share one important character: Prince Charming. But Frederic, Duncan, Liam, and Gustav are four very different princes, and happily ever after isn’t working out as well as they’d hoped. Cinderella has walked out on Frederic in search of adventure, oddball Duncan gets lost in the woods after Snow White sends him away, Liam’s reputation is in tatters after he refuses to marry the wealthy Sleeping Beauty, and Gustav is the laughingstock of the kingdom because Rapunzel saved him. After Cinderella is captured by a witch, Frederic calls on the other princes for help, but when their quest lands them in the middle of an evil plot against their kingdoms, the four must get past their clashing personalities and save the day. Despite a reliance on coincidences, Healy’s fast-paced debut is overflowing with suspense, humor, and carefully developed characters. Healy injects age-old characters and fairy tale tropes with a fresh, contemporary sensibility, resulting in a crowd-pleaser with laugh-out-loud lines on nearly every page. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8–12. Agent: Cheryl Pientka, Jill Grinberg Literary Management.

May 1, 2012

Gr 4-6-The premise in this debut novel is that the princes in the "Cinderella," "Snow White," "Rapunzel," and "Sleeping Beauty" stories resent their relative anonymity (they're all just known as "Prince Charming") and want some recognition. Then, too, that "happily ever after" thing isn't working for any of them, so the princes and their princesses set off to rectify matters. The eight of them team up in assorted permutations throughout the ensuing slapstick proceedings. Unfortunately, it all becomes tiresomely repetitive. Though it might be funny once for people to fall over and knock into other people who fall over... and over and over like dominoes, it stops being amusing pretty quickly. It's understandable that Healy's characters are broadly drawn. They are, after all, fairy-tale personae. But more than 400 pages of the obsessive-compulsive prince, the ridiculously macho prince, the overachieving prince, and the extremely stupid prince and their equally one-dimensional princesses are a lot to plow through, especially when things are left so unresolved that readers suspect a sequel is in the offing.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY

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