Belle: The Mysterious Message (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Disney Princess (Pb)) by Kitty Richards

by Kitty Richards

It isn't easy being the prisoner of the fearsome Beast, but Belle is making the most of it. There are so many rooms to explore in the elaborate castle-including an amazing library. This may not be so bad after all! Things get even more interesting when Belle discovers a secret message hidden in one of the books. She soon realizes she's hot on the trail of a decades-old mystery! Will Belle, with the help of Lumiere, an enchanted candelabrum, and a teacup named Chip, be able to solve this beastly case?

Genres: Fiction, Childrens, Beauty and The Beast, Fantasy, Mystery, Juvenile, Romance

Library Binding

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Masha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this so much!!

[Leah Delcamp · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a charming little story about Belle. She comes across a book in the castle library that is missing the last chapter so she and her enchanted friends follow the clues until she finds the missing pages to finish the story.

I liked that it was not totally predictable or too cutesy. It was sweet and true to each character’s personality. I also LOVED the artwork! I will definitely revisit this book for the beautiful illustrations. If you are a Beauty and the Beast fan, then this book is a must!

[Lily Jo Cullip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you like books?Belle loves reading books.Belle read the knight who is afraid of dragons one day he had to fight one!But there was a missing chapter.Will they find the missing chapter?Find clues to figure out what will happen to the knight who is afraid of dragons.

[Rosemarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a sweet little story about Belle. It takes place while she is a still a prisoner of the Beast, but before she starts to really like him. Belle comes across a book in the library that is missing the last chapter. She then goes on a search with the enchanted objects - scavenger hunt really - from clue to clue until she finally finds the missing pages to finish the story.

I love these original Princess stories - what a great idea! I have previously read Tiana's story and I hope to read all of them eventually. 'The Mysterious Message' is a good story for young readers. It is not terribly predictable, nor is it too silly or cutesy.

But what I love even more, as a adult, is the artwork. The Belle artwork in this book is some of the same artwork I have admired when I had dinner at Be Our Guest - the Beauty & the Beast restaurant in the Magic Kingdom!! I took pictures of the artwork on the walls when I was there, but a lot of it is up high and hard to get a good shot of with a phone camera. I was so delighted to realize I now have it in this book! I'd say my favorite is a full page image of Belle and Beast sitting on the castle grass gazing up at the clouds together.

Credit for the artwork is only given as the "Disney Storybook Artists." However, it is gorgeous and I am so glad that they found a more public use for it, where more adults can really appreciate it.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly we found this whole series at the thrift bookstore and my niece chose to get it. As a result I was tasked with getting the chance to read all the books to see how well they would stand up - do they stand closer to Classic Disney or are they capitalist woke Disney? Or maybe just capitalist Disney trying to get a bit of a mystery theme going on....

First of all some statistics for the whole series. There are included only eight books in this series with a mix of Disney princesses with some older ones and some rather newer ones combined together - Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Tiana, Merida and Rapunzel. Out of the eight shown on the box only Cinderella, Merida and Rapunzel are wearing the same dresses on the covers of their books while the other princesses are in different gowns. Meanwhile Tiana and Aurora are both in dresses that I have never seen in any of their canons whether their animated films or the Princess brand. Furthermore there is a listing on the box of the books, which is the way that I chose to read these books, but they can be truthfully read in any order as the reader may wish although I would honestly say Rapunzel's story should be last since that was the one that least interested me.

Each of the books has been illustrated with brightly colored full-page illustrations that are based off their animated films while those like Merida and Rapunzel had to be made into cartoons with Merida pretty much making the cut while Rapunzel didn't fare so well in my opinion.

And then a last statistic for the series, which rather confused me, is that the majority of these stories take place after the films in which these characters appear. Unfortunately the only exceptions to this rule seems to be Belle as her story is meant to take place some time shortly after she has moved into the castle as Beast's prisoner and Rapunzel as her story is meant to take place after she escaped the tower and went through the village but just before the lanterns were released thus making their stories seem more like fan-fic episodes.

This was the story in which I feared to read it since of the fact that it is only meant to be an episode in her time with the Beast instead of a story told after she has married the Beast in his human shape. All the movies that they did in this vein were quite horrid and I feared the same but I must say this particular story did much better than expected although I would still love to see some stories of Belle and the Beast when married.

To me the reason this story did so much better was the fact that it finally had Belle as not only an interesting character but it also showed her off with actually something she liked. Even in the Disney film you see books but you never get any titles or an idea of what she is reading while in here the book even down to being partially read is the main focus of the plot that drives it forward.

All the main castle characters appear in this story as well as one or two new faces that the reader wouldn't have thought about previously while the older characters do keep their personalities. As a result our three main castle staff - Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts and Lumiere do constantly allude to the spell and the hopes that these two people will fall in love to break the spell as the time is drawing nearer for it to expire.

There were a few things that did bug me but these were quite minor. On page four the sentence is cut off while not taken over to the next page. Fortunately our Belle basically rephrases the comment back so you still get an idea of what was being said. Secondly the book does seem to have some weird issues in providing the telling of the story in the past tense instead of the present, which makes those spots a bit awkward.

All in all this was probably one of the best of the books in the series and one that will most definitely have a better audience as such, especially if your little one is a book reader.

[Rosalyn Mobley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Belle who offered to take her father’s place to be held captive and live in the palace of the beast; with the help of some enchanted friends was able to unlock a several years old mystery concerning the beast and his childhood.

[Stephenie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well this is my first book suggestion from my youngest 1st grade daughter! She knows what I like, mysteries, enchanted castles, lots of books and a garden. My rating may be more on her ability to suggest books, but it was cute!

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Went in with low expectations but this surpassed them. It's a nice little mystery, the characters act just like their characters in the movie, the Beast is rude and later apologizes. No silly drama, no princesses, etc. Cute!

[Noe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't like that the Beast got his things taken away and his book thrown under the shelf. I liked that Belle got him his soldier and helped him.

[nona nony · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite movie and story ever 🥰🥰🥰

[Crystal Ellyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Belle: The Mysterious Message Review!!!

This book is really cute!!!! I read this book to my youngest niece. She read enjoyed it a lot! It is great!

[Ryan Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun and easy read with my daughter.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A total nostalgia read for me. But combining Belle and a mystery is a book I had to read :)

[Kat Ice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this little story! Of course I couldn’t give this 5 stars just because wit is a kids book but I still really enjoyed the story! Series like this is so great for kids!

[Gaelle Gilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable story

[Librarian Jessie (BibliophileRoses) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable children’s book about a wild scavenger hunt to find the ending of a book. Fits insanely well with the original tale.

[Lily Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in 4th grade and it was the only thing I talked about to my friends for like a month.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 4 year old loved it !

[Harley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was cute! I like how there was a story within the story and how they had to find clues to find the missing chapter.

[Lisa D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! What a cute Disney mystery book involving beauty and the beast!

[Dana Dowling · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is amazing because you will see messages.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining Disney book.

[Chris Finn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3*. Cute book.

[CATastrophe]

This is a story I read as a kid. I don’t know how to rate it, since I haven’t read it since. But the memory of its existence has lived on in my head.

[Blue]

Breathtaking art! The story itself was very charming and very much in the spirit of the original!

[Blueberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I personally think it's a fun read, like it's the first SHORTEST book I've ever read
And I actually loved it 😭😭😭😭😭

[Melmo2610 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was super fun for me as I love Belle. Enjoyable story with all the BnB characters we know and love.

[Amara Tanith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Movie tie-in material isn't exactly known for being high-quality stuff. When it comes to tie-in books, then, there are two avenues that are most often followed:

A) The uncreative novelization that adds nothing to the story and pales in comparison to the film experience. OR

B) The tie-in book, usually for children's movies, that specifically contradicts the movie's plot, characterization, or lesson.

Disney favors the latter.

In the case of Belle: The Mysterious Message, Kitty Richards has written a midquel to Disney's 1991 movie, Beauty and the Beast. As my fellow '90's children may remember, this movie in fact already has a film midquel in the form of 1997's Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (as well the three/four shorts in 1998/2003's Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World.) As for why Disney insists on adding scenes to the original picture instead of moving forward with the characters, I haven't the slightest idea.

But it certainly creates a load of continuity problems. That's the problem with a midquel: if you use the main characters of the source material, you're adding character development that was never present in the original. And that's a big problem in a movie like Beauty and the Beast, where the entire story revolves around the main characters growing closer. If you have important “learning to understand each other” scenes in the spin-off midquels, suddenly the movie itself fundamentally changes.

In the case of Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, this is striking. Tim Curry's character, the organ and former court composer, Forte, is an antagonist to both Belle and the Beast with the goal of keeping them from falling in love. Obviously, this determination to keep them apart and the resulting danger does a lot to bring the couple together... and that makes absolutely no sense in Beauty and the Beast continuity. There's simply no room for this character development in the original film.

Belle: The Mysterious Message isn't nearly as jarring, but it's there nonetheless. For half of the book, as a matter of fact, it seemed as if the problem would have been avoided by focusing on Belle and her mission, and ignoring the Beast completely. Unfortunately, the second half dashed that hope; but more on that later.

This short mystery takes place sometime after the Beauty and the Beast library scene and sometime before Belle leaves the castle. In the story, Belle and Chip discover a dusty old book hidden beneath one of the library's bookshelves. Belle starts reading the fairy tale within to her enchanted friends... only for everyone to face disappointment when they realize the last chapter of the book is missing.

As it turns out, the Beast ripped out the last chapter as a child; his tutor then decided to hide the pages, leaving clues for how the young prince could get the pages back. Unfortunately for Belle, the tutor left before the Beast ever found the book under the shelf and the first clue it contained.

So Belle and her friends start to follow the tutor's clues in hopes of finding the end to their story. Unfortunately for the original movie's continuity, they're forced to bring the Beast in on the plan, and Belle and the Beast have several scenes bringing them together as friends, completely in disregard of the movie's relationship dynamics.

Still, for all its discontinuity-making flaws, Belle: The Mysterious Message is a nice, short mystery for any young Disney princess fan. Perhaps a little boring for an adult reader, but a child should find it enjoyable enough.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to get a little absurd in writing this review, but children's books don't have to be mindless, right? This is the fifth book in the Disney Princess early chapter books series, and my daughter absolutely loves every one of them; however, the plot of this one doesn't totally fit with the plot of the film and the subsequent musical version, both of which my daughter is intimately acquainted with. In this book, Belle is still trapped at the Beast's castle, so it fills in some of the gaps sped through via musical montage in the film. The Beast has already shown Belle the library in the antecedent action, and in it she discovers a book called The Knight Who Was Afraid of Dragons. She sits up late at night reading it to some of the supporting animate objects from the film, but comes to the end only to find the last chapter missing. She does hoewever find a clue that leads her and the enchanted household items on a curious scavenger hunt around the castle, all placed there years earlier by the Beast's former tutor who hid the last pages of the book to teach him a lesson after an especially petulant outburst.

All of that is fine and appropriate for the intended audience, but my four-year-old daughter knew exactly when this is all supposed to take place in terms of the original Disney story (she's only seen the movie twice, but listens to the Broadway version often), and even she questioned why the Beast is so mean to Belle when he makes his cameo appearance in the book. In the original Disney film, the seeds of love have already been sown by the time he shows her the library. (And while I'm on the subject, when exactly did this enchantress change him into a Beast? The film suggests years and years have passed; that darned rose is supposed to drop its last petal on his twenty-first birthday, so was he a pre-adolescent when she turned him into the Beast? That's kind of harsh, isn't it?)

At the end of the book, there's a cute suggestion that the Beast and Belle's teamwork that results in their discovery of the missing chapter leads directly into Mrs. Potts's final lyrics in "There's Something There," but even that irked me since the scene in the book takes place outdoors and (after I checked) the scene in the film takes place in front of a roaring fire indoors.

I still gave it four stars, but as an adult reader I just crave books that are both entertaining for my young kids and yet not mindless for the adults who have to read them aloud!

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a translated version of this to help improve my reading in french. In french it was my correct reading level, sadly, so I could relate how a child reading this felt. As a Disney fanatic, it was a cute little additional story before Beast turns back to his princely self. The illustrations were beautiful to look at throughout the book. The story itself was interesting enough while reading and deciphering the translation. I read it much slower than an adult would and possibly slower than someone on my reading level since I was translating it word for word while learning new phrases and vocabulary. The clues in the story keeps it moving along, but in the end it wraps up too quickly for my tastes. There are new characters mentioned in the book, but I wish there was a bit more character depth even among the original characters of the movie. Overall, kids will enjoy reading this new tale within the original tale. It's a nice little chapter book for kids and Disney fanatics, but as an adult reader I was left wanting more.