The Mystery at Disney World (Real Kids! Real Places! (Paperback)) by Carole Marsh

The Mystery at Disney World (Real Kids! Real Places! (Paperback)) Reviews

• 
  Dina Roberts

  I had fun reading this book, mostly because I love Disney World. It's fun revisiting the rides.
  
  Unfortunately, however, I feel there are a lot of problems with the book.
  
  1. The mix of education and fiction doesn't work well in this instance. A book series I'd compare it to is The Magic School Bus series. I think that series works though, because it makes sense for a teacher to be teaching her students as they embark on magical field trips together. It's a whole different ballgame when you have children visiting Disney World with their grandparents and the dialogue sounds like a parody of an educational film.
  
  The dialogue seemed very didactic and unnatural.
  
  2. I think the author made some unwise visits to the thesaurus. In one scene, a nine-year-old girl says "I almost forgot how delectable this place smells." What child uses the word delectable? Unless you've already shown a character to be a precocious dictionary fan, the word seems very inappropriate.
  
  3. I feel a character in the story was wrongly corrected. The grandfather mentions the Rock-n-Roll Roller coaster at Disney. Miss Delectable corrects him and says no, the Rock-n-Roll Roller Coaster is at MGM studios. Well, yes. But MGM studios is part of Disney World, so Grandpa said nothing wrong. I think what the author meant to have the grandfather say is that the coaster is at the Magic Kingdom.
  
  The book is part of a series and I can see how it might have value in making educational material more palatable for children than a dry textbook. A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. Right? But if Disney World is a medication, it's already sweet enough. If a child wants to learn more about Disney World, I think a straight nonfiction book would be fine.
  
  
• 
  John

  I think this book had some good potential at the start, but quickly became fairly bland. I also thought the attitude of the characters to their siblings' disappearances was very oddly blasé, à la "Hey, my little brother is missing and may have fallen off of a boat in a dark and watery environment! Let's have lunch!"
  
  At one point just after the 2nd disappearance the kids take a ride on It's a Small World and that section turns into a matter-of-fact pointing out of each section of the ride. While the lack of real descriptive writing may be the author trying to keep it simple for a certain age group, I think more flavor was needed.
  
  I like the idea of intertwining the excitement of a trip to Disney with some sort of intrigue, but this fell flat for me. Making that intrigue a serious thing such as child kidnapping (even with a very short and poor attempt at cartoonifying one of the bad guys) really doesn't work in the context of the Disney atmosphere. At least in relation to the vision I, as a parent, would hope my kids have for Disney.
  
  What little description there was at the start became more of a drone of "where do we have to go next", and the wrap-up for where the clues were coming from felt like a big plot hole for me.
  
  Even knowing that my complaints are taken from my own parental point of view and kids may see it differently: my son kind of glazed over about half way through and we ended up speeding through the rest.
  
  If half-stars were allowed, I'd bump it up to 2.5 on a generous day. Sorry, author.
• 
  Redfox5

  I love Disney World and I love reading fiction about it!
  
  This is an alright story about four kids that get caught up in a kidnapping when they visit the Magic Kingdom. They get picked off one by one and are left clues by the captors that relate to a ride or attraction. Very Famous Five!
  
  This is where you have to suspend belief for a while. The captors have been picking of children to ransom to their parents and hiding them in Cinderella Castle. How on earth have they been doing that? Considering you have to get past security to get in and there are cameras everywhere in Disney!
  
  Also why did they bother leaving the kids clues? They said it was to give the kids the runaround but why lead them to the place you are keeping the kids? It didn't make any sense. I also wouldn't have picked the Stitch ride to feature in here since it's the least popular ride in the whole park.
  
  I thought it was confusing that they used Star Wars as a clue for the Magic Kingdom. Star Wars belongs in Hollywood Studios and I thought that meant they would have to leave the park and go there but apparently it meant Space Mountain? I wouldn't have put that together.
  
  There is better Disney fiction out there but this would be nice to give to a kid if they were going for the first time, as it does include lots of little facts about the park.
• 
  Chris Anderson

  I read this in a couple hours while our family visited Disney World. It was great fun, although the fact that the kids didn't notify any adults of the kidnappings was a bit disturbing...
• 
  Natalie Arn

  I reread this for nostalgia, and it was fun for that reason, but it really doesn't hold up.
  In mysteries for kids, it's understandable to simplify things, but there is a limit.
  
  There's so much that doesn't make sense. There's no reason for the villains to constantly give the kids clues to follow. They don't even try to explain why the kids don't go to any adults for help. And it's actually pretty hilarious how the kids are desperately looking for their kidnapped siblings one minute, and then gushing Disney World fun facts the next.
  
  There's lots of better kids mystery books out there, but then again, when I was a kid I thought the "real kids, real places" gimmick was actually pretty fun, so I can't bring myself to rate it TOO harshly.
• 
  Elizabeth

  My son brought this home from the school library and asked me to read it because he enjoyed it so much and we love Disney. I thought it was a great read for a kid’s mystery. I enjoyed how the author wove so many interesting facts about Disney into the storyline and appreciated all the history about the parks that was offered. While it didn’t teach me anything that I didn’t already know, It did provide some interesting conversation topics that my son wanted more information on. We will definitely be checking out other books by this author.
• 
  Lisa

  I just got back from Disney and bought this book for my nephew to relive our fun there; unfortunately, the book is already outdated and he won't know some of the lands and rides mentioned but overall I think this is a clever series that educates on the current topic. I learned a lot about Walt Disney I didn't know.
• 
  Patrick Birmingham

  I have five words to say for my own amusement having read through this marvelous Carole Marsh mystery: That was a quick read! Also, yes, I can see why Walt Disney World is one of my favorite vacation destinations and this mystery book that I read through in one whole day has a nice and meaningful message.
• 
  Meagan

  Book 18 of 2023.
  
  This was interesting…
  
  Why I wanted to read this book is a while ago when I was subbing in a 2nd grade classroom we started this, but I never got to see how it all played out. I put it on my wishlist and got it for Christmas last year.
  
  …
  
  It starts out innocent enough. Two grandchildren are going to Disney World with their grandparents. They are planning their day when they hear a knock on the door. That’s when it gets wild.
  
  These two random children (the grandmother had talked to their father on the phone) are at their door and telling them they are going to be their guides through the Magic Kingdom (their dad is an Imagineer).
  
  They head to Magic Kingdom talking about random Disney facts along the way. When they arrive they see their dad and announce he is going to be giving a special tour to the grandparents. They agree to this and give each grandkid a walkie talkie and say okay, see you at 8:30 pm. Please know these children are 9, 7, 9, and 13.
  
  They go off to their first destination and the main girl starts getting these weird riddles over the walkie talkie. By the end of that ride one of the children goes missing. They freak out, but decide to go look for him by themselves. To make a long story short, 3 out of the 4 go missing. Leaving the 9 year old main girl to find them on her own.
  
  Fast Forward to the reveal, she’s At Cinderella’s castle where 3 adults have kidnapped 13 “rich” looking children in order to get ransom money. She basically decides to save the kids herself and of course, it works.
  
  They end up meeting the grandparents and father at the fireworks, where the grandparents were like “oops, sorry we didn’t call you at all to check in, we were just too busy.” They watch the fireworks together and then it ends.
  
  It might be just me, but I found this to be crazy. The synopsis does mention 3 of the 4 go missing, but it makes it out to be a “magical game” and not what it actually was (an abduction). I told my husband about it and he said are you sure that’s a kids book?.
  
  I gave it 2⭐️ because I did enjoy the setting and facts throughout.
• 
  Rebecca

  The Mystery at Disney World follows the story of Christina and Grant who travel with their Grandmother, an author, to Disney World. As every one of their adventures something tends to go wrong. Children have been kidnapped left and right and when Grant suddenly disappears Christina, the other along with two others who join them for the ride, must solve the Mystery of Disney World. Will Christina find her brother and figure out whats been happening or will the happiest place on Earth become the opposite?
  This book is a great mystery for young children. Its simple and give the happy sense of being in Disney World. The characters go on a major adventure and get to solve it on their own. It isn't too scary like some mystery books can be but has a great deal of suspense anyways. For older children the story may be very predictable but for a 3rd or 4th grader this story is perfect for them.
• 
  Elizabeth Meadows

  I just found this book at a book sale and picked it up because it was about Disney. It was cute, but a bit far-fetched. It reads a bit like a travel guide with lots of facts and figures about Disney World, but I guess that is the idea behind the series. Each book gives information about a real place, but with a mystery thrown in for fun. This one was unrealistic because when the first boy disappears, the other kids don't seem to realize the urgency of finding him quickly and decide to go eat lunch while figuring out what to do. What???? Plus, they were on a water ride when it happened and didn't seem to take in the possibility that he could be lost in the water. That part aside, I think the story line would be fun for kids, which is who it is meant for.
• 
  Angie

  This is a good book
• 
  Katelynn

  this book taght me to always keep people in sight at diseny.(we are going in just two weeks)
• 
  Joan Stanley

  I loved this series when I was about 11. Each book takes place in a different setting, i.e. Disney World, or the Iditarod Trail. Great fun mysterious for kids.
• 
  Tonya O'Dell

  Read this with E. She loved the clues to the rides she loved! The story line and how it goes together is a little lame and odd!
  
• 
  Kim

  Cute story, great for middle schoolers who love Disney and/or mysteries!
• 
  Haley

  These mysteries are so fun!!! Ali and I are loving them!
• 
  Kat Ice

  this was a really cool book! even though it was a kids book it was cool to go throughout the park with them trying to solve the mystery!! great book for kids!!! and they wrote some for almost everything!!