The Jewel Princesses and the Missing Crown

Jewel Kingdom #13

by Jahnna N. Malcolm, Neal McPheeters (Illustrator)

When King Regal and Queen Jemma disappear, the four princesses of the series' previous books, along with four new ones, are left to save the realm from the evil Lord Bleak, in a volume packaged with a jewelry keepsake. Original.

Genres: Fantasy, Childrens, Middle Grade, Juvenile, Fairy Tales, Young Adult, Fiction

80 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1998

About the author

Jahnna N. Malcolm is the pen name for husband-and-wife team Jahnna Beecham and Malcolm Hillgartner. Together they've written four musicals, two movies, three CD-ROM games, and nearly one hundred books, including the popular series The Jewel Kingdom. They met in the theater and were married on the stage using Marlowe's famous love letter from "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" as their wedding vows.

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this was one of the first series I read as a kid and I remember them fondly!

[Dawnetta · Rating 3 out of 5]

If your child can read at this level it would be a good book. A fun beginning fantasy series. The plot lines are simple and easily solved with not too much of the dark side of fantasy.

[Tatum · Rating 5 out of 5]

i have read this hole book it is really good you would love it to because it is abat a mighting croun.

[MoonDancer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember getting the second book in this series at Christmas when I was 8 from my cousin and it had a necklace that came with it that the Princess in the story wore. SO happy I discovered this series again. I would love to know its conclusion. I have never gotten rid of a single book I've owned in the 29 years of my life and I own over 3,500 books in hard copy. My dream is to someday have my own library in my house. The Emerald Princess in this series had one. And that's what sparked my interest in making my own some day.

[Christine]

This was the book that truly got me reading as a kid. I had trouble concentrating on other traditional kids books/series because of length and plot. This was short enough that it didn't drag on and had illustrations to keep me engaged without appearing too childish (to my mind at the time). This is a great book for those who graduated from picture books but may be too intimidated to start full chapter books.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This came with a bracelet! I remember liking the book, it was fun.

[Jordan MacKinnon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omg !! After 12 books, we finally get to meet the elusive bad guy! A delightful ending to this series! Obviously, it was great to have a flash from the past!!

[A.]

I loved this book as a little girl, and I love that they are slowly re-releasing the series. I really hope they continue to release the rest, including this one.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I basically took notes as I read, so sorry if this is a little stream of consciousnessy.

The royal secretary is called Twitter and the princess's dragon runs her kingdom while she's gone I'm into this already.

I have a lot of questions. So whoever has the Great Jeweled Crown has all the power in the kingdom. In this conceptualization, it isn't just that whoever's the ruler has the crown - it seems that the Crown confers a kind of power upon its owner. Power, then, becomes something like magic - not just something ineffable but something concrete that can be manipulated and exchanged and taken. That's a lot, and there are so many cool things that could be done with it, but I'm not mad that the writers don't go there considering it's a story for little ones.

Also, the way magic is used in this book! Like, Demetra's mirror. "Magic Mirror, so shiny bright/ Who stole our crown late last night?" She clearly needs to chant something different every time she uses her mirror. Does it have to rhyme? Is that part of what makes the magic work? When the mirage of the Great Jeweled Crown appears, Roxanne just shouts, "Jewel magic! Oh, magic in this tower! / Take us to the Great Jeweled Crown. / Please, use your power!" Just. Off the cuff. Clearly didn't know what was going on or what magic was happening.

This idea that if there's magic, you can make it do what you want it to by just asking for what you want in rhyme is incredible. It's like 2am and I have work tomorrow, so I'm not gonna actually write the essay, but I kind of wanna.

I'd just read The Emerald Princess Plays A Trick, which is a solid early reader book with a good arc. This one though had zero character growth. I mean, call me a fuddy duddy, but if I'm gonna go on an adventure with a character, that adventure better change her. It's my writing pet peeve and that's my main beef with this novel. I'm not asking for much! It would've been so easy! Like to offer the ultimate cliche, the princesses squabble at the beginning and ultimately learn that despite their differences, they're Stronger Together. There were so many moments where they almost got a change arc - and then the authors just didn't push through.

I love that the only dude in the story is the Big Bad though. Not a saviour prince to be seen.

Oh wait, the Big Bad. Okay I get that you can't go too dark or too long, but we hear about the last time the Crown went missing. Things really sucked until the Good King & Queen defeated the Forces of Evil. SPOILERY GROUCHING. But here, the princesses just turned into giants and it terrified all of the Evil Dudes so much they ran away? For real? I'm cool with them joining hands and overpowering the Big Bad with their magic and combined shininess, it's a children's story, whatever, but like - man, either the Forces of Evil really levelled down, or the King and Queen and Royal Wizards really sucked at their job.

Anyways like I said in my last review ignore me I'm old and grumpy.

[Gillian Brownlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

My mom just found this in an old box of my stuff. I have such fond memories of this whole series!

[Luce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVED this series as a child and I've recently been tracking down the ones I don't have in order to complete my collection. These books are just as lovely and charming as I remember and I really enjoyed this one. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is the black and white nature of the good vs evil theme. I understand that these books are aimed at very young children so grey areas might be a difficult concept but I didn't think that Princess Rudgrin deserved to be punished just for being born on the wrong side. After all, that's something she couldn't help. I would have liked to see the Jewel Princesses befriend her and forgive her wrongs. Regardless of that, it was still very enjoyable and quite cute. If you loved these books as a kid then chances are you will still love them as an adult :)

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this book as a young girl - probably something to do with the dream of being a princess and that it was a short story that I could finish in an hour or two. Reading it now, I don't really see why I loved it so much as a child, so my rating is a cross between loving it when i was younger and thinking that its not so great now.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been looking for this series forever. I read one of the books when I was little (maybe 10) and loved it. I'm not even sure if this was the one I read, all I really remember is that each castle had convenient tunnels that the princesses could use to get to another castle.

[Nioniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

These used to be some of my favourite books... :P

[Lotus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book because each sister/princess rules a kingdom each. They were on a misson to get back the jewel crown.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved loved loved!! I loved these books as a child. They were little princesses each with their own talents and powers to save the land and people they cared for.