Literature / The Secret Kingdom

Left to right: Ellie, Summer, and Jasmine.

"Enter a magical world of friendship and fun!"

— Tagline

When Ellie, Summer, and Jasmine manage to open a mysterious box they bought from their school fair, a fairy flies out on a leaf. She is Trixie, and she takes them through the box to her home: The Secret Kingdom, a lush crescent-shaped island where fairytales and myths are real. But while the girls are enjoying the King’s party, an uninvited guest storms in: his sister Queen Malice. Enraged at the lack of invitation, she hurls six thunderbolts across the Kingdom, which will create disaster wherever they are. It’s up to the girls to find them and remove them before it’s too late…

..and thus begins, penned by Rosie Banks, a series spanning 34 books, 8 specials, and 7 arcs. All the books have the same elements: Big Bad Queen Malice has cursed the Kingdom. To undo the curse, the girls must find six (later four) Plot Devices across the island. The girls figure out how to find them, then what to do with them, and at the end of every arc, they defeat Queen Malice, and a celebration is held.

This series provides examples of:

• Alliterative Title:
  • Magic Mountain
  • Dream Dale
  • Fairytale Forest
  • Midnight Maze
  • Sapphire Spell
  • Ruby Riddle
  • Sparkle Statue
  • Melody Medal
  • Twinkle Trophy
  • Mermaid Magic
• Animal Lover: Summer. It's arguably her biggest talent, to the point that when Queen Malice tricks Trixie and the girls into wearing bracelets that steal their biggest talents, Summer's knack for creatures vanishes.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Anything that sounds, smells, tastes, looks or feels beautiful is benevolent, and often colored pink. Anything that sounds, smells, tastes, looks or feels ugly is malignant, and definitely colored black (or sickly green or stormy purple). Your moral code, Color-Coded for Your Convenience!
• Big Bad: Queen Malice. She was named for it.
• Dark Is Evil: Just ask Queen Malice’s palace. Or clothes. Or weapons. Or army. Or almost everything.
• Disappeared Dad: Jasmine lives with her mother and grandmother. Her father, and what happened to him, are never mentioned.
• Evil Is Angular: Queen Malice's character design is a testament to that.
• Evil Will Fail: We can only hope Queen Malice learned this lesson after her 42nd book of failure.
• The Good Guys Always Win: The girls and their allies have a 42-book streak of triumphing over Queen Malice and her minions.
• Kid Hero: Ellie, Summer, and Jasmine have saved the Kingdom multiple times while they were not out of their school years.
• Meaningful Name: King Merry is a merry, kind, and gentle person. His sister, Queen Malice, is the embodiment of all evil in his kingdom.
• Narnia Time: Time in the human world literally stops when the girls visit the kingdom.
• Once per Episode:
  • Queen Malice makes and/or resumes her Evil Plan.
  • The trio has to find a Plot Device to undo some of the evil Queen Malice has caused.
  • Trixie makes up a rhyming couplet to cast an incantation.
• Plot Device: It's so prominent that it’s granted Once per Episode status.
• The Power of Friendship: In "Ruby Riddle", the answer to the titular ruby riddle is “friendship”. Queen Malice couldn’t figure it out, because she doesn’t have friends, but the girls do, and they solve the riddle, get the ruby, bring King Merry’s crown back together, and end Queen Malice’s reign over Crescent Island.
• Shout-Out: Queen Malice putting a curse on something out of rage for not being invited to a party is reminiscent of a certain fairy tale...
• Story Arc:
  • One:
    • Malice's Evil Plan: The creation of six thunderbolts that spread discord wherever they are, then hurling into different areas of the kingdom.
  • Two:
    • Malice's Evil Plan: Cursing King Merry so that he slowly but surely turns into a Stink Toad.
    • Plot Devices: The ingredients required to make the potion for his cure.
  • Three:
    • Malice's Evil Plan: Cursing Summer's storybook so it sends its villains to wreak havoc on the kingdom.
  • Four:
    • Malice's Evil Plan: Reversing the magic of the four Animal Keepers, whom the fun, friendship, kindness, and bravery of the kingdom all rely on.
    • Plot Devices: The charms which grant them their powers.
    • There are always four Plot Devices in the series arcs hereafter.
  • Five:
    • Malice's Evil Plan: Taking over the entire kingdom. For the first time, she actually fully succeeds before the girls stop her.
    • Plot Devices: The jewels on King Merry's crown. When the King's crown is fixed, it will grant them the power to overthrow Queen Malice.
  • Six:
    • Malice's Evil Plan: Tricking the girls and Trixie into wearing bracelets that seal their special talents, so they can't use them to interfere with her schemes.
    • Plot Devices: Special talent prizes, which, if won, will break the bracelets.
  • Seven:
    • Malice's Evil Plan: Cursing the Kingdom's Magic Hourglass, so that when its sand runs out, all of the Kingdom's magic will disappear forever.
    • Plot Devices: Four Enchanted Objects (yes, capitalized). If all of them are collected in time, the curse will be lifted.
• Show Within a Show: The Pandora Parks books.
• Tagline: “Enter a magical world of friendship and fun!”

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