Finished The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer. I received a copy from the publisher at BEA.
Summary (from Goodreads):
“Alex and Conner Bailey’s world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairytales.
The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.
But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought.”
I am loving this new subgenre of paranormal YA where people go into books or have fictional characters come to life. This book was even more special because the fictional characters we meet are people we already know (Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, etc.). It’s somewhat similar to Into the Woods, because we get to see what happens after the “happily ever after.” (Fortunately, unlike Into the Woods, the majority of people have had happy endings.)
This is an incredibly sweet story and would be perfect for middlegrade readers. It’s probably not too scary for elementary school kids, although it’s over 400 pages so that may be intimidating for some readers.
It’s probably not surprising to anyone that I especially loved the character of Alex. Give me a shy bookworm of a heroine and I will practically be guaranteed to write in a review that I loved that character. ;) But I think she was so realistic because—no matter how much you want to get home—wouldn’t you just have to explore a little if you ended up in a book that you loved? Wouldn’t you want to meet these characters that you felt were like your friends? I know I would.
(And, like Alex, it would probably take me a second to realize that meant that all the villains I didn’t like were real, too.)
Recommended.
