Parents' Guide to Beyond the Isle of the Lost: Descendants, Book 5

Parents need to know that Beyond the Isle of the Lost is the fifth book in Melissa de la Cruz's best-selling Descendants series -- and a scene-setting, character-introducing prequel to upcoming Disney+ movie Descendants: The Rise of Red. And a further slew of spinoffs and franchises. Here, the action moves beyond the villain-prison Isle and the fairytale land of Auradon to the realm of Wonderland, ruled by the Red Queen of "Off with their heads!" fame, who's raising her daughter, now 16, in her own awful image -- but, like villain kids before her in the series, Red is beginning to have her doubts. As elsewhere in the series, main characters are older teens (here, 16-ish) but act and think much younger most of the time, like clever, precocious tweens. There's a budding crush between two teen characters. The big, heroic quest here involves a (not too well thought out) plan to introduce fun into Wonderland by throwing a party (the first in anyone's memory) for their schoolmates. The Queen is cartoonishly vicious and brutal in her efforts to get the kingdom and her daughter into line -- she berates her unhappy servants, throws things at people, throws others into dungeons, and while she doesn't chop off any heads this time around, her vengeance against those who disobey is usually swift and catastrophic. The book serves mainly to introduce the characters whose doings launch the new movie franchise, and they're often pretty thin and one-note. But, as elsewhere in the Descendants series, friendship is a strong theme, as is the fact that you don't have to be like your villainous ancestors.