Will Alex and Conner ever return back home? I read The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer only over two days in late May. It is part of The Land of Stories series, which has five books (so far), all very long. The sixth and final book is coming out in July. The Wishing Spell is the first book in the series.

Alex and Conner Bailey are twins. Their dad died right before they turned eleven. They don’t see their mother much because she has to work to support their family. On their twelfth birthday, their Grandma comes and presents them with her big book of fairytales, The Land of Stories. Alex loves fairytales, and she wishes that all of it was real, in a world where they could visit all the characters. The first night they have the book, after Alex rests it on her bedside table, ready to drift off to sleep, she notices that the book is glowing and humming. A week later, she’s at school and the book starts glowing and she has to explain to Conner what’s happening. After school that day, she has an idea. As well as the glowing and humming, anything that she drops onto the pages sinks in and disappears. She wonders what it would feel like to sink into the book. She starts with her arm, gently swirling it into the pages. Suddenly, she falls face first into the book. She lands in The Land of Stories (Conner comes too) where one of her greatest wishes is true: fairytales are real.

Now, the reason this book is named the Wishing Spell is because if you succeed in the spell, you will granted a wish. No matter how large, if you succeed, the spell will grant you one wish. They don’t know how to get back home, so that is what they are wishing for. In order to complete the spell, they must collect eight items all over the fairytale world. They are following a journal written by a man who was also on a quest for the spell. They have experiences with Goldilocks (the fugitive on the run), Red Riding Hood (the self-obsessed queen), Sleeping Beauty (the wise, trusting queen and my favorite of the queens), and many other famous and not so famous fairytale characters. It is set mostly in The Land of Stories, which is located in… a book. It’s very interesting, and a real page turner!

I am going to describe Conner’s personality. Most people would describe Alex, as her personality is pretty easy and she shows a lot of it, but Conner’s personality is more complicated. He is popular in school, unlike his sister, and keeps falling asleep in class. As you can tell, he’s not a very good student. Maybe the total opposite of his sister, who is attentive, intelligent, and a bit of a know-it-all. Conner is a bad student, but a good brother, as he saves Alex in many sticky situations. He has good ideas. For example, he has a trick to keep himself from falling asleep in class. He wears a rubber band around his wrist, and any time he feels himself getting sleepy, he snaps the rubber band. He presents this idea to the Sleeping Kingdom (Sleeping Beauty’s kingdom), as their citizens are sleeping 24/7, and no work is getting done. The kingdom adopts this idea and it works. Conner can be very logical and smart at times. You just can’t force him to be smart and logical. For example, when they first arrive in The Land of Stories he is the smart and logical thinking about all the things that could go wrong in their world while they’re gone. There might be a huge time change! Something big politically might happen! Literally anything could could go wrong, or they could miss something super huge. Alex loves sightseeing, and while the logical voices in her head were repeating what Conner was saying, but her curiosity got the better of her. So Conner is a logical intelligent person, you just need to catch him at the right moments.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

One of the most interesting and important parts of this book is when Alex and Conner go the Sleeping Kingdom for the first time. They need to collect the original needle that Sleeping Beauty first pricked her finger on for the Wishing Spell. Sleeping Beauty is my favorite of the queens. Conner is presenting the rubber band idea and suddenly one of Cinderella’s glass slippers falls out of their bag. The slippers are one of the most prized possessions in all the land. It makes them look like thieves. They didn’t actually steal the slipper. They tell this story to Sleeping Beauty and her guards (the guards are attacking) and Sleeping Beauty has faith, trust, and wisdom, for she believes them and calls off the guards. She is very wise, and she gives them the needle gladly, with the promise that they will return it as soon as they are done with it. It is important because it teaches Alex and Conner that some people in the fairytale world are also reasonable and wise, even people that you might least expect to be. That’s also just a general lesson in all life.

I enjoyed this book SO MUCH! I honestly loved it so strongly and this series in general that it’s the best thing since Harry Potter. It is so rich and full of information and twists around every corner that you just don’t want to stop reading it. All the other books are that same. I am one of those people that like to find out the true hidden meanings of famous stories, and that is basically exactly what this book gives. If you love that kind of stuff too, you need this series in your life. There are many other books that uncover hidden secrets from famous tales and you can look at multiple perspectives. These books might not be for everyone, but I highly suggest you give them a try because I’m 99.99999999999% sure that you will love them.

My rating of this book is (drumroll please): 5 STARS! This is maybe one of the greatest books I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a lot of books) and as soon as I finish the rest of the books I will definitely be rereading!