Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld

Author: Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
Illustrator: Asiah Fulmore

© Date: 2021
Publisher: DC Comics
Pages: 158
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, graphic novel
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No

Summary from Book: Amaya, princess of House Amethyst in Gemworld, is something of a troublemaker. She and her brother have great fun together until a magical prank goes much too far and her parents ground her…to Earth! They hope a whole week in the mundane world will teach her that magic is a privilege…and maybe washing dishes by hand will help her realize the palace servants should be respected.

Three years later, Amy has settled into middle school and ordinary life. She doesn’t remember any other home. So when a prince of the realm brings her home and restores her magical destiny, how will she cope?

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld introduces a new generation to a fantastical place and a truly fantastic princess.

Page Pig Thoughts: After Amaya had been left on Earth for three years, she became the sort of girl that would make a parent proud. She was confident in herself, had witty comebacks for the remarks of other kids, and she defended her friend. When she returned to Gemworld, Amaya has strong magical powers to go with her confidence and desire to help/save others. Which is a nice turnaround from the spoiled and entitled princess that she was at the beginning of the story.

Overall this was a good read. Although some parts of it are hard to follow. Some of the characters come into the story without much explanation for who they are, the prince that brings Amaya home left me wondering for a long time who he was. I also had to go back and skim around sections to make sure that I understood what was going on in the plot. The book seemed like it was supposed to stand alone, but really feels like there is another book that would explain this one.

The misguided ideas of what Gemworld residents think about Earth were amusing, but I did not find the rest of the story overly humorous.

After the first read, Page Pup was not overly sure what happened and found the story interesting/odd. After we talked about what happened in the story, Page Pup read the story again. Page Pup found the book to be okay, but still had a part that was confusing. Ultimately, many items such as the nuances of stasis spells, the subtleties of Amaya’s sword changing when she went to Earth and back to Gemworld, and the spell that trapped Amaya’s brother inside the body of the evil Flaw likely make this a rather tricky book for a younger reader to follow.

Family Unit: Amaya is a princess that lives in a castle with her mother, father, and younger brother, Quartz. When she goes to Earth, she goes by Amy and Citrina the Amethyst Kingdom mage goes by Trina and acts as her aunt/caretaker.

Autumn is Amaya’s Earth friend and is struggling with the news that her parents are getting a divorce.

Conflict/Social Issues:

Amaya uses her magic to cause mischief around her castle and goes to Earth as a punishment.
A boy at school picks on Amaya/Amy and Autumn.
Flaw and his Flawlings have been attacking villages around Gemworld. Northing was able to kill the Flawlings until Amaya arrived with her sword.
The royalty of House Amethyst disappear.
The Gemworld council does not listen to children.

Positive Items:

Amaya learns to be kind and use her abilities for good, rather than mischief.
The princes and princesses of Gemworld show that good ideas and responsibility can come from children.
Amaya and Autumn are best friends, but also willing to allow Topaz to join into their friendship.

Items of Interest:

Amaya has very strong magic and involves her brother, Quartz, in her magical hi-jinks of playing tricks on people around the castle and stealing treats.
Amaya uses her magic to sneak into the Amethyst kingdom vault. While she is planning some sort of trick to play on someone, Quartz accidentally damages the Amethyst keystone and causes a blast that tears through the ceiling.
The King and Queen are upset, so they banish Amaya to Earth for a week. They hope that living without magic will teach Amaya that power is a privilege, not a right.
Quartz has rather misguided ideas about Earth, such as rats are the only things that fly. He also says that all things on Earth are black, gray, brown, and green.
Before Amaya leaves, Quartz wants to send Amaya with his kid practice sword to help keep her safe. He is upset when Amaya turns down his offer. He sneaks back into the vault and finds a piece of the keystone that broke off. So he ties it onto his sword and manages to get Amaya to take the sword with her.
Citrinia, the Amethyst kingdom mage, is the one to escort Amaya to Earth. Amaya uses the name Amy. Citrina uses the name Trina. Citrina acts as Amaya/Amy’s aunt and caretaker.
Amy is initially very sad about being on Earth in drab clothes and doesn’t know how to function without magic.
Quartz’s sword turns necklace pendant size and Trina says that traveling the portal between Earth and Gemworld can sometimes produce unexpected results.
Amy criticizes the school lunch food on her first day at school and winds up in detention. She tells herself that she is only there for a week.
The book then skips to three years later, Amy and Trina keep forgetting something, they just aren’t sure what. But they function well together on Earth.
Amy wears Quartz’s sword as a necklace and seems to be protected from mean kids and the pain of soccer balls hitting her head.
Amy has made a friend, Autumn, that she hangs out with and defends from the unkind boy. She winds up in detention where the teacher knows her by name, and Amy says that she will keep going to detention “as long as people get detention for standing up to jerks.”
Unkind/mean boy, Kevin, rips Amy’s necklace from her neck. As Kevin is about to attack Amy, a Gemworld portal opens. Amy reaches out to take mysterious stranger’s hand from mystery portal as Autumn was bending down to pick up Amy’s pendant from the ground.
Amy and Autumn are transported to Gemworld. Autumn gives Amy her pendant back, but now it had become a real sword. Amy and Autumn can’t believe/don’t understand where they are. Amy doesn’t remember being Amaya at this point. As the stranger, Topaz, tries to explain that they are in Gemworld, they jokingly say that they are in Fairyland.
Memories of Gemworld start coming back to Amaya.
Flawlings, mindless creatures spawned from Flaw’s body, are attacking a village. Amaya goes to defend the people in the village with her sword. She kills a Flawling, which had never happened previously. She then jumps and fights with an ability that also seemed impossible previously. The people of the village are grateful that Amaya saved them, and also that Princess Amaya returned.
Memories of her childhood start to come back to Amaya, she apologizes to the chef that she tormented and seems embarrassed because she realizes that she used to be “an entitled little jerk.”
Amaya slams the door on the servants that came to assist her with preparing for a ball, she says she can’t get used to being a princess.
Amaya, Autumn, and Prince Topaz have a sleepover.
Prince Topaz is embarrassed by his first name, Merbert, so he goes by Topaz.
Gemworld princes want to dance with Princess Amaya, but she turns them all down to go dance with her friends Autumn and Prince Topaz.
The Gemworld council allows Amaya to join the meeting because there aren’t any other royal representatives for her house. But apparently the adults do not listen to children.
Autumn does not feel that she needs to go back home right away because her parents will be too busy with their divorce stuff to notice that she is gone.
During Amaya’s time back in Gemworld, no mention is made of Citrina/Aunt Trina being worried about Amaya/Amy, or that maybe Citrina would like to come home as well.
Amaya, Autumn, and Topaz find Flaw in his lair and attack him. Amaya strikes Flaw with her sword and he goes running off like an injured small child.
Amaya, Autumn, and Topaz find Flaw again. Amaya dropped her sword. Flaw and Amaya reach for the hilt at the same time and Flaw starts talking like Quartz, Amaya’s little brother.
Amaya realizes that Flaw is not her enemy. She offers him her sword freely. When he grabs it, Flaw transforms back into Quartz. The magic that turned Quartz into Flaw held him in time, so Amaya aged but he did not.
Amaya and Quartz got back into the vault to check on the Amethyst Keystone that went wonky when the sliver came out into Quartz’s hand and caused the ceiling blasting explosion. After Amaya left to Earth, the King and Queen went to investigate the Keystone. The Keystone splinter in Quartz’s hand started pulling him to the Keystone. The King and Queen pushed him out of the way and got trapped in a stasis spell with the Keystone. So they have been floating in a timeless bubble.
Amaya and Quartz put the Keystone sliver back into the Keystone/stasis bubble and the Kingdom is saved. The King and Queen return to life and are confused how Amaya got so big.
Autumn decides that it is time for her to go home. Amaya, Topaz, and the Queen go back to Earth. Topaz walks Autumn home to explain to her parents where she has been. Amaya and the Queen walk to find Citrina and revive her memory of who she is. The Queen and Amaya agree that Amaya can continue going to school on Earth.