MYSTICAL ADVENTURE OF ASHLEY SPRINKLER

Magical realms and wild exploits entangle a girl in this debut children’s fantasy novel.

The child of an English father and a Malaysian mother, 9-year-old Ashley Sprinkler is happy her family is moving to Kuala Lumpur to live with her maternal grandmother. Yet several months later, her father—the genius inventor Professor Sprinkler—dies suddenly. Ashley inherits his magical/scientific artifacts, giving her a chance to rescue Billy, the neighbor’s rabbit, who became trapped in another dimension. But instead of Billy, Ashley accidentally frees a wizard, Speed Twister, who forcibly transports her (and Bob, the neighbor’s cat) to his Maze Realm. Though they manage to escape, their magical gateway takes them to the Enchanted Gardens Realm, where they meet Prince Jeff, 15, a talented inventor. His kingdom is facing attack from the Three Weird Sisters of the Desperate Valley realm. The sisters killed his parents and have now imprisoned Billy’s kidnappers, Valerie, 10, and her witch mum, who traveled to Desperate Valley to steal magical items. Complicated cross-realm travels through magical portals, battles, and adventures ensue, with Ashley winning allies and learning more about the many powers inherent in her father’s inventions. In this innovative tale, Idid employs the popular portal fantasy motif, the multiple realms giving the author lots of room to explore characters, comical mishaps, and even tragedy. It’s a creative mix but confusingly hard to follow as the plot jumps from one event to another with little sense of an overall story arc. For example, Ashley’s sudden transport to and from an enchanted forest doesn’t advance the plot or develop her character. Techno-magical items aren’t well thought out. It’s more satisfying for readers to learn artifacts’ powers before they’re wielded, but here, their (often unrelated) effects simply appear as needed.

An imaginative portal adventure hampered by a muddled plot.