Cloaked by Alex Flinn | eBook

Publishers Weekly

As she did in Beastly and A Kiss in Time, Flinn mixes traditional fairy tales with a modern setting in a romance that is clever but not always compelling. When the beautiful princess of Aloria visits the fancy South Beach hotel where kind, 17-year-old Johnny toils in his family's shoe-repair shop, she transforms his monotonous life. The princess promises to marry him if he can find her brother, who a witch has transformed into a frog. Borrowing details from such stories as "The Elves and the Shoemaker" and "The Frog Prince," among others, Flinn sets Johnny on an adventure involving talking animals (actually bewitched humans called "used-to-bes"), greedy giants, and a cloak that can transport Johnny and his best friend Meg anywhere they wish. Johnny and Meg face various villains and tests, from a relentless witch and her goony son to a park ranger who threatens to sell the frog prince on eBay. But readers may tire of the endless cloak hopping; they will have long guessed the book's conclusion, including who Johnny really loves and what really happened to his long-lost father. Ages 12–up. (Feb.)

Children's Literature - Lisa Kuehne

If you want to return to fairy-tale land, this book is right up your alley. Johnny, a shoe cobbler, works nonstop to keep his family shoe repair shop afloat after his father's mysterious disappearance. His less than exciting life takes a sudden turn when he meets a beautiful princess visiting South Beach. Johnny has been secretly working on designing his own shoes. If the princess would endorse one if his designs maybe Johnny wouldn't have to worry about money anymore. But the princess has her own agenda. She wants Johnny to rescue her brother, an arrogant prince who has been turned into a frog by an evil witch. What is his reward for this noble act of bravery? Johnny will get her hand in marriage. He embarks on a wild adventure, but in order to complete his quest, Johnny has to believe in talking animals, giants, witches, magic and most of all, true love. Flinn has quirky characters, a touch of good humor, and has brilliantly tied unexpected quotes about shoes into the story. Young readers will certainly enjoy this book, but teens may lose interest. The numbers of fairy-tales crammed into one novel becomes overwhelming and too predictable. Flinn does a great job with giving readers a very sweet romance, constant action, and encourages us to think outside the box. In the end, Johnny shows young readers fairy-tales come true. Reviewer: Lisa Kuehne

VOYA - Sean Rapacki

Johnny is struggling to make ends meet in his family shoe repair business, located in the lobby of a ritzy South Beach hotel, and secretly harbors dreams of making his own designer footwear. He is frustratingly oblivious to the romantic potential of his friendship with Meg, and instead hopes to win both wealth and the hand of a glamorous princess by helping to locate her missing brother, who has been turned into a frog by an evil witch. Throw in a cloak of teleportation, a pair of earbuds that allow the wearer to converse with bespelled animals who used to be human, and a couple of hungry giants, and you have the makings of an adventure. The author skillfully weaves aspects of over a half dozen fairy tales, including The Frog Prince and The Elves and the Shoemaker, into her narrative, but the end result falls far short of her best work. Flinn is a superior writer of realistic fiction for teens, and she has previously struck gold by doing modern-day revamps of classic fairy tales. Her newest effort, however, has neither the verisimilitude of the former nor the magic of the latter. Based purely on the subject matter and success of her previous novels, Cloaked should still have a wide, if not fully satisfied, audience. Reviewer: Sean Rapacki

School Library Journal

Gr 6–9—Flinn reimagines a fairy-tale world in her latest novel. Teenaged Johnny works as a cobbler in his mother's shoe repair shop in a posh hotel in South Beach. He spends his days with his friend Meg and designs his own line of shoes while dreaming of wealth to free his family from the confines of poverty. Unexpectedly, the striking Princess Victoriana of Aloria comes to the swanky Miami hotel for a royal visit. The super-hot partying princess pleads for Johnny's help in finding her missing brother, and offers of money and a royal marriage convince him to take her seriously—even when she explains that the prince has been turned into a frog. With the aid of a magical cloak and some headphones that allow him to hear animals speak, Johnny embarks on a journey wherein he encounters talking swans, a fox named Todd, and two angry giants. When he lands in hot water with an evil witch bent on destroying him, Meg comes to his rescue. The pair journey from South Beach to Key West, to Europe, and to Manhattan; and in the end, Johnny finds wealth, fame, and true love. Flinn cleverly plays on some lesser-known fairy tales to make this book a fun, romantic adventure with likable characters. Rapid action and amusing situations make it a quick read that will easily entice even reluctant readers.—Tara Kehoe, Plainsboro Public Library, NJ

Kirkus Reviews

A warmhearted, goofy and occasionally quite silly tale—tales, really— featuring17-year-old Johnny, a poor but honest shoemaker in a luxury hotel on Miami's South Beach who dreams of designer glory and keeping the electricity on. Who should breeze into his hotel but Victoriana, princess of Aloria, complete with a French accent and a hint of magic. Her "bruzzer" is missing! He's been turned into a frog! Johnny must help! What follows is a neatly nested series of fairy-tale mashups. Flinn cleverly uses quotes from the originals as chapter headings, from "The Shoemaker and the Elves" and "The Princess and the Frog" to "The Wild Swans" (which now live in that luxury hotel), "The Firebird" and others. Johnny's best friend Meg has a little magic of her own, and readers will probably want to reach into the pages and smack Johnny silly as he steadfastly misses the signals she sends. The friends proceed through this appealing, magic- and mishap-laced adventure, and it all ends quite nicely, as told in Johnny's clueless but endearing voice. The original tales are explicated briefly at the end. (Fractured fairy tales. 10 & up)

Cloaked

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