The book I am reading is the Land of Stories:The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer, published in July 2017. This book is fast-acting, adventurous and interesting. This story is fantasy mixed into modern day life with real-life problems.
In the book Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell the point of view is third person and there are two main characters, Alex and Conner Bailey. However, Alex is the most interesting and is the main protagonist in the story. Alex Bailey is very smart and always tries to be helpful and encouraging to others. “She had a thirst for knowledge and, because of it, Alex was usually the first person to answer Mrs. Peter’s questions.” (pg. 14). She is always eager to please and put extra effort into the jobs she is given.
Alex is also a social outcast and tries her hardest to be friendly with everyone. “She tried her best to impress her classmates with every chance she got…However, this usually annoyed other students, and Alex was often teased for it.” (pg. 14-15) Although Alex Bailey is very smart and loves to learn, this caused her classmates to be mean to her and she is often lonely. The antagonist of this story is the evil queen, this is because she is trying to get the spell before Alex and Connor do. The queen wants it for selfish reasons but the siblings want the spell to return home to their mother.
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In the beginning of this story, Alex and Conner Bailey appear to be living a normal life in our modern day world. But one day, they magically fall into a fairy tale book and appear in another dimension where all the fairy tale characters are real. In order for Alex and Conner to get back home, they must collect special items that someone in this fairy tale world told them about.
These special items are all objects relating to every princess in this world and the siblings must collect them and make a wish to go home. However, the wishing spell can only be used one last time. The climax of this story is when Alex and Connor discovered that the evil queen in this fairy tale world wants to use the wishing spell as well. If they ever want to go home again, they must get items before the queen does.
If they don’t, it is going to be a longer stay than they had ever imagined. There was a continuous fight between the queen’s servants and the siblings trying to get each item before the other does. The resolution of this story is when the winning people finally get the spell to do what they want with it.
The main setting of this story is the fairy tale land that the siblings fall into. The story starts in a present-day town consisting of real life problems. Later in the story the setting changes to the fairy tale land inside the book portal. This fantasy land is where the most important and eventful parts of of the story take place. This setting is very important because it is where the plot starts to get exciting, without this setting the book would be very unimaginative and boring. The conflicts in the story wouldn’t make sense if the main setting was different.
The Land of Stories:The Wishing Spell has a theme that teaches an important life lesson. This theme is that nothing is impossible if you work hard and believe in yourself. “And even when the whole world hated her, she still never quit trying to free the man she loved… she never gave up hope.”(pg.422) Even though Alex and Connor made it seem as if they would never make it home, they did not give up along their journey.
They kept trying and believed that one day they would make it back home. “I saw how the stories inspired them, how they gave them hope, how they gave them courage and strength, and how they learn their lessons from them.” (pg.429). This is important because the things that are worth the most are the things that you have to work your hardest for. Goals that you can wish to accomplish in life are not impossible if you do not give up.
This story is very unique and has a complex writing style. This story’s writing style is very creative and imaginative but also descriptive. This shows how complex the writing is because the author had to put a lot of work into making up the information and making it so descriptive. “It was unlike any forest they had ever seen-in real life, at least. The colors were so vivid and the air was so crisp. It was as if they had fallen into a painting…” (pg.82). This is an example of good writing because this quote shows the precision and the descriptiveness of the story. This also shows how the author wrote the story so that the scenes paint a picture in your mind when you read.
After doing research I learned a lot about the author of this book and what influenced this story. Chris Colfer, the author of this story, was an actor before a writer and was a very famous celebrity. Colfer’s very first novel was The Land of Stories:The Wishing Spell and the idea for this book came from his childhood.
As a child, Chris Colfer’s mother read him traditional fairy tales and Chris always imagined what it would be like inside the fantasy lands. Chris Colfer was also often inspired by music and movies and he loved that his stories could be connected to anyone. Colfer made sure to not state where the main characters were from so that anyone reading the story could connect to them and imagine everything.
I recommend this book to anyone who grew up reading and liking fairy tales and fantasies. The Land of Stories:The Wishing Spell, brings fairytale characters to life and tells what happens during their happily ever after. This book would be great for anyone who imagined the fairy tale world and what it would be like. People who do not enjoy intense make believe or princess and prince stories should not read this series. This story is very adventurous, creative, believable and action packed and I recommend this story to someone looking for a good book.
