A Giant Problem

Mihi Ever After #2

by Tae Keller

The adventures of Mihi Whan Park and her friends as they revisit the fairy tale realm to solve a giant problem.After just barely surviving their last trip to the Rainbow Realm, Mihi Whan Park and her friends Reese and Savannah know that stepping back through the library refrigerator and into the magical fairy-tale world would be a dangerous choice. But when they discover that Mihi’s nemesis, Genevieve, has crossed through the fridge and into the Rainbow Realm herself, Mihi, Reese, and Savannah decide they must bring her home.Through the refrigerator they go, and when they arrive, they find the world has changed. Atop an enormous beanstalk, a greedy giant wreaks havoc on the realm, and Genevieve isn’t the only one who needs saving. Now Mihi and her friends must team up with villains, concoct a magical disguise, and infiltrate a party full of the most fearsome creatures in all the land. What could possibly go wrong?

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Fairy Tales, Childrens

215 pages, Library Binding

First published May 16, 2023

About the author

TAE KELLER is the Newbery award winning and New York Times bestselling author of When You Trap a Tiger and The Science of Breakable Things. She grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she subsisted on kimchi, purple rice, and stories. Now, she writes about biracial girls trying to find their voices, and lives in Seattle with her husband and a multitude of books.

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Reviews

[Brok3n · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mihi meets Jack and the Giant

A Giant Problem is the second book in Tae Keller's Mihi Ever After series. As you know if you've read Mihi Ever After, there is a portal to a fairy tale world called the Rainbow Realm hidden in Mihi's school library refrigerator. Mihi stumbled into it with Savannah and Reese, with whom she is now fast friends. They resolved never to go back there, or even to talk about it. But it transpires that all three of them have been dreaming of the Rainbow Realm. (What could be less surprising, right?)

Then Mihi kind of by-accident-on-purpose tells her old frenemy Genevieve, not expecting Genevieve to believe. But Mihi, Savannah, and Reese find Genevieve's backpack abandoned on the floor by the fridge. The Rainbow Realm is a dangerous place, and Genevieve is not prepared. Mihi, Savannah, and Reese decide they must rescue her. When they get to the Rainbow Realm they discover that there is trouble there -- a giant beanstalk has grown, with disastrous effect. So, we have mission creep... In addition to saving Genevieve, they must save the Rainbow Realm.

I enjoyed A Giant Problem more than Mihi Ever After. I think that Mihi Ever After failed to solve its first-act problem. There was so much stuffed into it that exposition overwhelmed the story. A Giant Problem doesn't have that problem. I will continue reading the series.

Blog review.

[Kelly {SpaceOnTheBookcase] · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't my first novel by Tae Keller; as the mom of a middle grader, Keller is big in our house. I thought this audiobook version of Mihi Ever After: A Giant Problem was narrated in a way that would hold the attention of young minds. The story was well thought out, and even as a second in the series, provided enough background that you didn't have to read book one. It's a relatively fast read and I loved the lessons.

Thank you Macmillian Audio & NetGalley for access to this audio arc!

[MissBecka Gee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really cute middle grade fairytale adventure.
I didn't realize this was book 2 in a series, but it's okay.
The author gives you just enough details from the first book that you can read this as a stand a lone.
Some of the characters voices were a bit high pitched and nasally, so i would suggest the print.
Didn't ruin the story for me, just would have preferred lower octaves.
Much love to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for my DRC.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Sara Esa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. 📖📖

[Alisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first book of the series and knew I wanted to read the second book even though this is a middle grade series. This one fell a little flat to me but I still thought it was a solid book in the series. I still think middle graders will love this series. Especially if they were a fan of the first book. Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy of the arc in return for an honest review!

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

First sentence: Mihi Whan Park was sitting in the library for indoor recess. Again. Two months ago, she'd: 1) discovered a portal to a fairy tale world 2) met Sleeping Beauty, Snow White's evil queen, and Goldilocks's three bears 3) survived a horde of enchanted ladies-in-waiting.

Premise/plot: Mihi and her (new) friends Reese and Savannah return to the dangerous fairy tale realm (the portal is a refrigerator in the school library). Though these three barely escaped the first time round, these three are back again for a second adventure. Why? Well, Genevieve, Mihi's nemesis (frenemy), has ventured into the realm. Mihi thinks that Genevieve will need help to survive and return. She surely knows that it took all three of them [Mihi, Reese, Savannah] to escape the first time. So much trickery and deceit in that realm.

Expect a giant, a beanstalk, and Jack in this second book.



My thoughts: The Rainbow Realm is topsy-turvy and unpredictable. Mihi and friends do have trouble detecting who is being honest and who is lying. To be fair, sometimes it's because they are just in a tough predicament where they have to make a decision to move forward. Even a bad mistake is movement forward. There are a lot of villains in this one. Few are just openly villainous. Many are "I'm just misunderstood" or "I'm trying to rewrite my story." A few villains they trust turn out to be honest (a wolf and fox), but others are just lying (a witch?).

I am not the intended audience for these--obviously. I think they are certainly entertaining...especially for kids in that intended age range. (Perhaps not so much for adults just for the fun of it.) These books--the first two--focus a lot on the tricky relationships. It is so tough to make friends and keep friends. Both books look at what makes a friend a good friend in addition to how to BE a friend even when the other person isn't the kindest or nicest.

[Rach · Rating 3 out of 5]

A second fun story in the Mihi series - this one picks up shortly after the first one ends, but this time, Mihi and her friends have to head back into the Rainbow Realm to bring back Genevieve, Mihi’s ex-bestie, who has a lot of pressure in her life to be perfect and takes her fears and frustrations out on others. Honestly, she’s not very nice, and her family life doesn’t give her an excuse to be condescending and mean to others. I’m glad Mihi finally works through her complicated feelings about their friendship ending, especially now that she has such supportive friends. This series is clearly going to continue, as they need to help bring back Princess Pat from wherever she went in her quest to write her own ending.

This book is a fun read but it’s perhaps not quite as good as the first because there’s a lot going on, and it feels a bit scattered. It seems like a lot of things are being set up, but it’s unknown when those things will pay off. There’s the giant who is using magic in unique ways, the magical train station, the inequality between the rich and poor, the witch, Maven, and her potentially evil future, Mihi’s necklace that is still in the mice’s possession, the mystery of who Patricia is (and is she Ms. Lavender), where Princess Pat took off to, what was up with the magical fruit, and more. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Thanks to the publisher and author for the advanced copy I received of this book at this year’s Emerald City Comic Con.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this one much better than the first. It makes me look forward to getting them all in paperback for M. once she's a bit older. I appreciate that Mihi is growing into a more confident young lady, even if her old friendship with the snooty Genevieve doesn't get wrapped up in a hug and bow. I hope Reese and Savannah get their own storylines, not necessarily in separate books but certainly in these so that they are just side characters who boost Mihi up a bit when she needs it. The fairy tale references in here continue to be interestingly played with and I appreciate the inclusion of a Korean tiger. It's funny that Jack is somewhat of a bimbo who is still perceptive. I can see Keller building up multiple storylines for the series to explore down the line, esp. with Maven's increasing knowledge and power. I like how Sleeping Beauty becomes "Pat" with short hair who helps her kingdom. I most appreciated the insertions of world truths about how the powerful tend to gather power for themselves and congratulate themselves for their "hard work" in achieving it when they do so at the cost of others. The ethical choices the kids make are good ones, and their hearts are good. They strive to save Genevieve despite her being ungrateful and still self-important. We continue to see her insecurities, and I'd like the next book to get into it much more deeply. So far this is very much a young elementary series, which is fine. I'd like the characters and themes to deepen as they get older, however.

[Kirsten | KirstenLeeReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I jumped into reading this without realizing it was the second book in the series. With that said, I loved it! I could definitely tell that it was the 2nd book but enough back story is given that it didn’t matter and this was a whole new adventure. I adored Mihi and her friends, Reese and Savannah. The rainbow realm filled with all the fairy tales was so much fun to adventure to with them. There were lots of good lessons about life and how people tend to treat those they deem as less than themselves badly. Mihi is also Korean and I loved how it touched on how different and isolating it can be at times when people are judgmental towards other races. I really just found this book a joy to listen to and I can’t wait to read it with my girls! I really enjoyed the narrator of the audiobook!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook. All thought are my own

[Rachel Rauch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so much better than the first one. Didn’t blow me away or anything, but the world was well-built and the story is strong. I feel like once again, the series suffers from the idea that the main plot introduced in the first novel isn’t the one that’s going to carry through. And that the first novel was all just set-up and background but now we can see the characters develop, we got to see more of the world, and it feels like there’s a solid plot line that makes it all more dynamic. Overall, I would recommend this one and that you could probably skip or skim the first one if you wanted to.

[Shauna Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say, I don't really care for Genevieve, she is kind of mean. Overall, the story is fun and entertaining, I think young readers will enjoy this story. You have to love the sounds that narrator

Triya Leong makes for the birds, they were fantastic! Triya did a great job of creating different voices for each character, you always knew who was speaking.

[Ellon · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars ( I really liked it)

I think one of the great things about the Mihi Ever After books is that by exposing problems in the Rainbow Realm, Mihi (and the reader) is also realizing those same problems exist in our world.

This was definitely left open for a sequel and I'll be excited to read that one too.

[Cecilia Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recently returned from the Rainbow realm, Mihi tell’s Genevieve Donnelly a story inspired by her adventures.
When Genevieve turns up missing, Mihi knows that she found a way into the Rainbow realm.
This story moves away from the Disney influence and is becoming more original as the series continues to build.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun- Mihi enters the rainbow world where fairy tales live, sometimes a little jumbled together. This time she goes with 2 friends to rescue a former friend/now nemesis? and enters a Jack and the Beanstalk type of tale.

I picked this up because my granddaughter was reading it and I like to keep up with her series.

[Megan Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this one! It was so fun! I loved this fresh take on Jack’s story (he barely played a role!) and how it’s a singular fairy tale realm. I loved that Mihi learned so much about herself and friendship this go around. And that not all friendships are forever.

I can’t wait for the next one!

[Jessica Geil · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is cute! I like the ties the author has made between fairy tales, and the different elements scattered about. It's a sweet story, one with a strong focus on friendship.

[OjoAusana · Rating 4 out of 5]

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This is such a great series! i really love the characters and the story. looking forward to yet another adventure!