Good As Gold

In Good as Gold, the latest installment of Sarah Mlynowski’s “Whatever After” series, Abby and her little brother Jonah learn some important lessons: don’t judge people before you get to know them, and perfection isn’t always necessary – sometimes ‘good enough’ is enough.

Abby is just realizing the cupcakes she made for a school bake sale are stuck in their baking tin when Jonah loses control of his skateboard in the basement. The board hits the magic mirror that sends Abby and Jonah, along with their dog Prince, into fairytales. The impact leaves a small crack in the corner, making them worried that Maryrose, the fairy who lives in the mirror, won’t be able to send them into fairytales anymore, and, more importantly, that Maryrose might be hurt.

When they go to the basement at midnight, the time when Maryrose usually takes them into a fairytale, they’re relieved to see the mirror is working. Instead of one fairytale, the mirror sends Abby, her little brother Jonah, and their dog Prince into a fairytale jumble.
After smashing into the home with three bowls of porridge cooling on a table, Abby deduces they must be in Goldilocks and the Three Bears; when a blonde girl comes in and starts rummaging through the home, she’s certain. While Goldilocks is interrogating Abby and Jonah about what they’re doing there, the bears come home, and Goldilocks makes a quick escape, leaving Abby, Jonah, and Prince to fend for themselves. After a narrow escape, Abby and Jonah see a purple swirl, the portal they use to return home, by the bear’s mailbox. They decide it’s too early to leave and that Goldilocks deserves their help even though she ran out on them. They know they’ll mess up the fairytale like they always do. Lucky for them, it’s already messed up. Rumpelstiltskin, famous for spinning hay into gold in The Miller and The King, lives in the woods and could save Goldilock’s father from a lifetime in jail. All they need to do is befriend three angry bears, find Rumpelstiltskin, convince him to spin straw into gold without promising to give him Abby’s first-born child, and get back through the broken mirror before their parents notice they’re gone, if they’re able to get back at all.

Set in a land where animals are banned from entering the kingdom and people judge each other before getting to know them, Good as Gold delivers valuable lessons as well as another fantastic adventure. Rumpelstiltskin just wants a friend, the bears find out it’s the king, not all humans are awful, and Goldilocks was rude only because she was stressed. When Abby and Jonah finally meet the Queen, they find out she’s the same person Rumpelstiltskin helped by spinning gold in his original story. The King forced her to marry him because he thought she could make gold. When she sees Rumpelstiltskin again, she’s inspired to put an end to the King’s reign. Once the King is in jail and everyone he’d put there for reasons like sneezing in his presence are released, the Queen apologizes to the animals and lifts the kingdom’s ban so human and animals can live together again.

With even more twists and turns than usual, in Good as Gold, Mlynowski gives readers another fast-paced and action-packed read that leaves readers eager to find out if Abby, Jonah, and Prince will be able to travel through the cracked magic mirror again and to learn what’s happened to Maryrose who lives in the mirror. Readers will love how almost everyone in the fairytale gets a personalized happily-ever-after and will be anxious for the next adventure!