Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld had several of my favorite things for a cover: the color of purple (amethyst), fun looking characters and it looked like it would be a light read. But most importantly, it was by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale. And you really cannot go wrong with them.
However, this growing up story has several missing chunks of the learning to be a better person part of the story. We see the Princess Amaya of the Amethyst kingdom going from extremely powerful with magic, naughty, kid to being aged 12-13 in a matter of pages. You see a few scenes where the princess (after being banished to Earth as punishment for one of her pranks) tries to order the humans around (it does not go well) to three years later.
Here is when things pick up. Now known as Amy, she, and her aunt (a member of the court who accompanied her to Earth) keep thinking they are “forgetting” something (they are the years prior to the last three). But oh well, time for school. Amy, now a defender of the “little guy” from the “jerks” of school spends a lot of time in detention. She has a best friend and one day a portal opens in front of them, with a young prince basically saying, “Howdy Princess, time to head home!” And she and her bestie are swept into the portal, back to her homeland and in the middle of some crazy stuff. Amy thought middle school was tough, but how will she handle battling creatures, being waited on hand and foot, and the council of other royals from the other kingdoms?
I am not familiar if Amethyst is a “superhero”, but with the DC logo on the cover and a publisher description saying “Amethyst created by Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, and Ernie Colaon” then I am assuming this is an adaptation for Hale’s and illustrator Asiah Fulmore’s. And speaking of illustrations, the cover shows you what you see is what you get: wonderfully colorful illustrations in a cartoon/manga/anime style. There is the right number of details with some simple panels and some more busy ones. They are, like the text, fun and simple, but get the point across.
Ages 8 to 11-12 will enjoy this badda$$ princess who is part She-Ra, part Barbie Princess and part Hermione Granger.