Beauty Queen

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Beauty Queen
Author	Sarah Mlynowski
Illustrator	Helen Huang
Published on	28 April 2015
Published by	Scholastic Inc.
ISBN	978-0545746540
Books in Chronological Order
Preceded By	Cold as Ice
Followed by	Once Upon a Frog

The Beauty Queen is the seventh book in the Whatever After series, written by Sarah Mlynowski. It was published on April 28, 2015

Synopsis

Pretty is as pretty does!

The magical seventh installment in this New York Times bestselling series!

This time, the magic mirror sucks Abby and Jonah into the story of Beauty and the Beast. When Jonah angers the Beast by picking flowers from his garden, he becomes the Beast's prisoner! Abby has to save her brother by finding Beauty, whom the Beast will surely fall in love with, right? NOPE. The Beast doesn't like Beauty, so it's up to Abby and her brother to match-make this reluctant pair and fix this fractured fairy tale before things get pretty ugly!

Preview

To read the first chapter, click here.

Storyline

When the book begins, Jonah still has no memories of any trips through the magic mirror. Abby thinks that seeing the mirror in action will trigger Jonah's memory, so she takes him to the basement just before midnight, but when she knocks on the mirror nothing happens.

The next day, Abby is horrified by what her painting turned out to be, as she planned to give it to her mother on the latter's birthday. When the teacher praises Penny's painting, she knocks a glass of water onto it out of jealousy and then immediately regrets it.

Abby tells Penny it was an accident, but she feels guilty and that she is a horrible person. She has a nightmare that the flowers in Penny's painting are calling her a monster. Jonah asks if they are going to try the mirror again. When they do it works. Abby, Jonah, and Prince land in a new fairy tale. Jonah's memories did not return, so Abby has to explain that they usually mess up the story they land in. They see a castle and wonder which fairy tale they are in this time. They explore the empty castle and grounds, until Jonah pricks his finger on a rose and Beast appears.

They are in "Beauty and the Beast." Abby gives Jonah a recap of fairy tale, then they meet the beast. They learn his name is literally Mr. Beast. Beast accuses Jonah of picking a rose and wants him to pay with his life.

Abby makes a deal to save Jonah by telling Beast that she knows how to break his curse. Beast gives Abby until dinnertime to help him, which is at 9pm. Jonah is happy to stay behind because Beast offers him homemade ketchup.

Abby and Jonah begin to learn that everything in this fairy tale has a literal name: not only is Beast named Beast, his servants are named Mr. and Mrs. Butler, and they are in the kingdom of Kingdom.

Abby and Prince set off to the town of Town, on a pony named Pony. Abby stops in Cheese Shop and learns that Beauty spends all her free time helping others. Abby spots Beauty and tries to ask for her help without supplying too many details, and is surprised when Beauty agrees to help without even being asked. Abby keeps the details from Beauty just in case they would make her reconsider, but even when she explains that Beast is a monster, Beauty says that doesn't change anything because "I don't go back on my word."

Beast, on the other hand, has changed his mind: he would rather keep Jonah, who he considers a great friend. They have been playing games all day. Abby freaks out but learns that Jonah loves the idea of staying with Beast too: "This place is amazing!" Beast slams the castle door in Abby's face.

Abby and Jonah definitely ruined the story. Beauty is upset too, thinking that Beast rejected her because she is ugly or a horrible person.

Abby tries a new tack with Beast, asking him to take not just Jonah but her and Beauty as well. Beast is surprised, as no one has ever asked to stay at his castle before.

Abby's attempts to have the Beast fall in love with Beauty aren't working: Beauty feels that Beast dislikes her, and Beast ignores her and favors Jonah's company. Abby accuses Jonah of messing up the story; Jonah wants to stay as long as he can because this is the only fairy tale he can remember and he is having a great time.

Abby's other problem is they don't have a watch so they have no way of knowing what time it is back home in Smithville. Jonah finds a magic mirror in their wing of Beast's house and through it they can view their parents, who are sleeping. Jonah can also view their alarm clock, which lets Abby calculate the differences in the passage of time and figure out they have 27.5 hours to fix this story.

Abby makes a new plan: have Beauty and the Beast go on dates. She and Jonah make a list of date ideas.

Over dinner, Abby tries to get the two of them to find things they have in common, but fails: Beauty likes reading, Beast does not. Beast likes to cook and eat, and play games. Beauty misses Town, Beast likes being far from it. When left alone, instead of chatting, Beauty abruptly leaves and Beast's feelings are hurt. Abby learns the real reason Beauty fled the table: she is allergic to cheese. She ate cheese at dinner to be polite and is now having an allergic reaction. When Beast finds out he says he doesn't want anyone to suffer, and agrees to let Abby bring Beauty some books from his vast library. Beauty is too dizzy to read. She tells Abby that the reason she does whatever people tell her to is because she doesn't like to insult anyone.

The next morning, Abby rushes to implement her best date idea: dancing. Beauty doesn't want to dance because she is organizing Beast's books. Abby puts on a record titled SLOW DANCE and after much efforts gets them to dance. Almost immediately, Beauty steps on Beast's bare foot. Abby blows up at them for "making it very difficult for me" to get them married. Beauty didn't know that part of the plan and is stunned. Beast tells Abby to forget about it, and releases Jonah and tells them to just go home.

Beauty has some questions for Abby! And there is no way Abby is giving up on her matchmaking even though both parties have told her to stop. After making up one bad reason after another for Beauty to marry Beast, Abby settles on outright begging. Beauty says "Okay" with a sigh.

Now Abby just needs to convince Beast, so she helps him cook their final meal. She learns his family lives in the nearby kingdom of Horatio, and that his real name is Mike. Mike didn't move here because of a curse, he moved because he was sick of being pitied by his family. His curse came from a fairy named Jax, just because Jax was jealous of Mike's looks and wealth. Abby's face burns with recognition.

Meanwhile, Beauty has chosen books for Jonah and Beast. Jonah loves his book so much he ignores lunch. Everyone gets along swimmingly over lunch, and Beast enjoys the company and food so much that he proposes to Beauty. Beauty accepts, and Beast turns back into a human.

Beauty freaks out at the change from Beast to Mike. After Abby finally tells her about the curse, Beauty is upset that no one told her any of this before. She also now questions Beast's motivation for proposing. Beast admits it was to lift his curse, but allows that "you do seem really nice."

Next, Beauty finds out that she is going to live in Mike's castle forever. Abby pushes on, "ignoring Beauty's obvious concern."

Just then, Prince barks at something in the trees: Jax the fairy has returned. Abby confronts Jax and sees how jealous Jax still is. Jax also questions how Abby engineered the proposal, accusing her of exploiting a loophole in his curse, since Beauty and the Beast aren't in love. Jax decides that Abby deserves to be punished, and Abby secretly thinks so too because of what she did to Penny's painting.

Jax turns Abby into a furry beast. Abby begs Jax for a way out, "And it can't be getting someone to marry me, because I'm only ten!" Jax says her curse can be broken by stopping Beauty from marrying Beast, which will mess up the story again. Jonah suggests changing the story.

Over a meal (linner), Mike reveals he misses his Beast sense of smell and his Beast ability to eat multiple meals a day. Abby's conscience tells her to stop the wedding, but Abby is resigned to being a beast forever, because of her guilt over the painting.

Shortly before the wedding, Abby finds Beauty in the basement, organizing books, as if she is not that into her wedding, but Abby still feels that if she stopped the wedding it would only be for selfish reasons, and thinks "I will not break up their wedding for myself."

Jonah, acting very mature for his age, is the one to stop the wedding, and reveals that will also lift Abby's curse. Beauty and Beast are both relieved. Mike tells Abby that by her willing to stay a beast for him means she has a heart of gold. Abby still feels like a monster because of what she did to the painting, but Mike explains that people make mistakes, and "no one can be nice all the time." Beauty realizes that maybe she also shouldn't be nice all the time. They break the engagement, Mike turns back into Beast because that makes him happy, and Beauty says that books make her happy.

At that moment, Jax bursts in. Now Jax is jealous that he wasn't invited to the party, so he turns everyone in the castle into beasts. Prince grabs Jax's magic yo-yo, and Jonah uses it to reverse the spell.

Freckles, who runs Cheese Shop, arrives late and hits it off with Beast. As the Butlers toss Jax out, he hollers "You can tell my cousin I'm not sorry for what happened in Wallenta!"

Abby and Jonah hurry to return home through Beast's mirror. Knocking doesn't work but Jonah uses the yo-yo to cast another spell and just before the mirror turns purple, Jonah regains his memories and tries to tell Abby something else but there is no time.

Abby and Jonah return home just before their parents wake up. Abby realizes that even if she can't paint as well as Penny, she paints from the heart and "Maybe it's time for me to accept who I am."

When Abby checks her jewelry box, Beauty is a librarian. Beast runs a B&B with Freckles. At school, Abby bravely apologizes to Penny and tells her she was jealous. To try to make it up to Penny, she agrees to help her with geography and other stuff.

Appearances

Characters

• Abby
• Jonah
• Maryrose
• Grumpy Great Grandma
• Jax

Locations

• Wallenta

Gallery