The Land of Stories

The Wishing Spell

The first book in the series, The Wishing Spell was released on July 17, 2012.

A year has gone by since Alex and Conner Bailey suffered the tragic loss of their father. Their mother, who is trying to balance her job and her family after her husband's death, is unable to celebrate their twelfth birthday. Instead, the twins' Grandma comes to celebrate. She gives the twins a book of fairy tales they recognize from their childhood, titled "The Land of Stories". Alex keeps it in her room at night and soon discovers a buzzing noise coming from the book. It doesn't take the twins long to realize that the book of fairy tales is real and acts as a portal between both worlds. They meet numerous classic characters including Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Goldilocks, Little Red Riding Hood (who's not so little anymore) and new characters including Froggy, Sir Lampton, The Huntress, and Trollbella. However great the twins find the fairy tale world, they realize they need to find a way back to their world. Froggy tells the twins of the Wishing Spell, where magical items are put together to grant one wish. The twins embark on the greatest adventure they've ever been on, traveling across just about every kingdom and encountering villains along the way. They follow the journal of a man who collected the items once before. The book reaches its climax when Alex, Conner, the Evil Queen, the Huntress, Goldilocks, Jack, Queen Red Riding Hood, and the Big Bad Wolf Pack (descendants of the Big Bad Wolf who agreed to kidnap the twins in exchange for Red) as well as Red's army, meet at a hidden palace in the Sleeping Kingdom. Goldilocks and the Huntress battle until Jack fires a cannonball at the Huntress and she is killed. This book also tells the story of Evly, The Evil Queen and her lover Mira. When she was little, she was a very kind and caring girl. Evly stole the Wishing Spell to free her lover Mira from the magic mirror, but he dies in her arms and they are both swallowed up by the mirror. Alex and Conner find themselves trapped in the fairy world, until they learn that their grandmother is the Fairy Godmother, who is capable of making portals between the Otherworld and the Fairy World, and the journal written by a man who had successfully completed the Wishing Spell years before when he fell in love with a woman on Earth belonged to their father. Therefore, Alex and Conner are part fairy. Alex and Conner get back to their mother through a portal made by their grandmother into the Otherworld in the end.

The Enchantress Returns

The Enchantress Returns is the second installment in the series and was published on August 6, 2013.

The story takes place in the Sleeping Kingdom, where villagers celebrate the end of the Enchantress's curse. While conducting the celebration, Sleeping Beauty found that she's feeling quite weary and asks King Charming to take over for her while she rested. While in deep sleep, the knights of the kingdom enters Queen Beauty's room and wakes her up, alerting her that vines sprang up around the kingdom, and they need to leave quickly. Sleeping Beauty protests, but the knights lead her to one of three carriages. While riding in the carriages, there is a flash of blinding light. Queen Beauty looks around and sees only spinning wheels.

Alex heads home after attending school and finds her brother Conner, who is worried because their mother hasn't yet come home from work. He also found a romantic note to their mother from a surgeon she worked with named Dr. Bob. When Charlotte comes home, Alex and Conner ask if Charlotte really has a boyfriend. Their mother tells them that it's true. Later on, Bob goes to see the twins and tells them about his plan to propose to their mother. He shows them the ring, which has two large diamonds on it, one pink and the other blue. When Bob asks the twins for permission about the proposal, Conner and Alex decide that this would make both Bob and their mom happy, so they agree.

All three decided to surprise Charlotte with a special dinner at the Bailey house. Alex returns home as quickly as she could from a course she was taking at a community college, and Bob tells their officemates at the hospital to keep Charlotte busy so she won't come home early. The twins' mother, Charlotte, doesn't show up on time, but another nurse at the hospital says that she had left two hours ago. They then hear a mysterious knock at the door and a bunch of fairy tale soldiers barge in. Bob was originally doubtful, but later accepts that The Land of Stories is real. The twins' grandmother, the Fairy Godmother, enters and explains that their mother was kidnapped. While their grandmother attends to her own business, Mother Goose babysits the twins. Later, Alex gives Mother Goose champagne until she becomes drunk, and Alex asks her for information, which she unknowingly gives.

Alex discovers that her mother was captured by Ezmia, "the Enchantress," and that the Sleeping Kingdom was in ruin. Since she couldn't get to the Land of Stories through the book, she sneaks out of the house and goes to her Grandmother's house, hoping to find a way to the Land of Stories. The next day, she almost falls off of a bridge. Unexpectedly, Conner saves her, and admits that he had followed her. They eventually go to their grandmother's house, which had a glowing painting in it. Alex knows that this is a portal to the other world. Suddenly, Alex and Conner find themselves in The Land of Stories. They eventually find Froggy, who is still in frog form as a disguise. All three travel to the Red Riding Hood Kingdom, where the Enchantress seemed to be destroying symbolic historic sights. Alex and Conner then attend a meeting only for the kings and queens by persuading Red to wear a dress that they could hide under. At the meeting, the Enchantress captures Alex and Conner's grandmother, revealing that she had captured 'Alex', but instead got Charlotte, their mother, who pretended to be Alex. At Red's castle, Conner learns of something called the Wand of Wonderment, which makes the holder invincible. To create it, one must find the six most valuable things of the six most hated people in the world. To help find all the items, Red asks the villagers to all pitch in to make a flying ship out of all her baskets.

When the ship is completed, Alex, Conner, Red, Froggy, Goldilocks, and Jack fly the ship across The Land of Stories. They obtain the ice scepter of the Snow Queen, the wedding ring of Cinderella's stepmother, the giant's harp, the glass from the Evil Queen's mirror, and the jewels of the Sea Witch. However, they are unclear on what the Enchantress's most prized possession is. After landing in the Troll and Goblin territory, they discover that Trollbella is now queen, and that Bob traveled to the Land of Stories as well. They meet the ghost of Hagatha in the Sleeping Kingdom, who explains that the Enchantress' most prized possession is her pride.

The Enchantress uses her vines to drag Conner, Red, Froggy, Goldilocks, and Jack to the coliseum. Alex tries to defeat the Enchantress by subtly stealing her pride, but she is blasted off of the coliseum. Because she was holding the Wand of Wonderment, she is saved. However, when she reaches the ground, she faints. Alex then has a dream that she was talking to Alice from Wonderland, Lucy from Narnia, Dorothy from Oz, and Wendy from Neverland, who advises her on the situation. Alex wakes up and goes back up the coliseum using a flying horse. When she arrives, she drops the Wand in front of The Enchantress. The Enchantress tries to kill Alex with the Wand after Alex stripsped her of her powers (until Ezmia got hold of the Wand of Wonderment) but Rumpelstiltskin jumps in front of the blast to save Alex out of guilt for what he has tried to do for Ezmia. Conner destroys the Wand, so all the magic is taken from her body and she dies.

After that, Bob finally proposes to Charlotte and they get married in Cinderella's castle. When it is time to leave, Alex claims that she iss meant to stay in the Land of Stories, and that Conner should share their stories in the real world. The twins then believe that they were to be separated forever after the fairies decided to seal all portals leading to and from The Land of Stories. Later, Conner fetches Cinderella's step mother and step sisters, Conner also shares their stories in the real world.

A Grimm Warning

A Grimm Warning is the third installment in the series and was published on July 18, 2014.

In the beginning of the third book, Alex is in the Land of Stories training to be the next fairy godmother and is preparing or her coronation as Fairy Godmother. Meanwhile, Conner is at school in the real world and is questioned about where his sister is. Conner goes on a school trip to Germany to hear stories by the Brothers Grimm that was recently found in a time capsule. The good news for Conner is that the girl he has a crush on (Bree Campbell) is going. The bad news is that four annoying girls called the book huggers are also going.

As for Alex, she keeps messing up casting her spells. She eventually meets a farm boy named Rook Robins, who she starts falling for. She becomes very torn later in the story because her grandmother is dying and she feels like she is killing her. The fairy godmother is dying because she finally found a replacement and now the fairy god mother can rest knowing the fairy tale world rests in good hands.

Conner finds out that one of the stories is actually a secret message and a warning for the Land of Stories. He sets out across Germany to crack a 200-year code. With the help of Bree and the directions of Mother Goose, Conner eventually meets Emmerich Himmelsback, a little boy from a small village.

Then, Alex and Conner realized an army from their world, the world of regular people, was coming to the Fairy Tale world. The army was led by the Masked Man, who they presume is their father. When some villagers got attacked by the Grande Armée, Rook (Alex's crush), informs the army of where Alex and the kings and queens were to free his father.

Alex's grandmother, the fairy godmother, eventually defeats the twins' presumed father's dragon with her fairy magic and dies. Alex is disgusted with Rook, figuring out he was the person who leaked out information and dumps him.

Beyond the Kingdoms

Beyond the Kingdoms is the fourth installment in the series and was published on July 7, 2015.

The book begins with the Bailey twins chasing the Masked Man, who appears to be their late father. Alex was going through mood swings, in which her hair would float above her head and her eyes would glow. She also would get affected by her emotions greatly, in which she would attack many people. Alex then was 'un-godmothered' and kicked out of the fairy council for insisting that the Masked Man should be one of their high priorities. Alex loses control of her magic, shooting at the fairy council with lightning and vanishing. She arrived at the Giant's castle which Mother Goose was staying in.

Later on, at Red and Froggy's wedding, Morina the beauty witch arrives and claims to be Froggy's first lover (and the one who cursed him to live as a frog). She also threatens to harm Red if he doesn't leave with her. Froggy chose to leave, as Morina is a very powerful entity. Meanwhile, Conner gets beaten up by the Masked Man in the library as he attempts to steal books. Conner ripped off his mask, so everyone else can be convinced that he is their father. That night, Alex wishes to speak with her late grandmother, who sends an angelic moth of memories from the stars to tell Alex the true story of the masked man: he's their uncle Lloyd.

Conner's old friend Trix the fairy had stolen a book from his grandmother's possession. Apparently, what Lloyd attempted to steal was a Portal Potion, which could transport anyone into any book created. The ingredients to the potion contain a branch from the oldest tree in the woods, a feather from the finest bird in the sky, a lock and key from a lover, two weeks of moonlight and a splash of magic. Alex then confronted that the Masked Man was their uncle and not their father. Conner said she was crazy. But Mother Goose said that it was true and it was their grandmother's death wish for her to not tell. The group then have to travel into the literature stories and stop their uncle before he recruits an army of literary villains.

Alex and Conner are trapped in separate worlds by Lloyd and his armies. Alex is trapped in the world of King Arthur and Conner is in the land of Robin Hood. After they meet up in the land of Oz, they realize Lloyd has sent armies to destroy the kingdoms. They later realize they need to go home for supplies. They leave to the Otherworld on a cliffhanger - they aren't going into any published stories. They're going into Conner's.

An Author's Odyssey

An Author's Odyssey is the fifth installment in the series and was published on July 12, 2016.

When the twins and their friends enter worlds crafted from Conner's imagination, finding allies no one else could have ever dreamed of, and also recovering many memories they had made in the fairy-tale world, the race begins to put an end to the Masked Man's reign of terror. Conner and Alex spend moments in Conner's short stories ranging from battling pirates to racing in an ancient pyramid filled with a thousand zombie mummies with the story's main protagonist. Conner had to go with his mother, Charlotte Bailey, in one of those adventures. In the meantime, the Sea Witch and the Snow Queen along with the witches at Dead Man's Creek had other plans. The Snow Queen and the Sea Witch planned a handful of dust made from a magic mirror created by demons on Alex whereas only one piece of the dust turned the enchantress into what she became.

Worlds Collide

The sixth book, titled Worlds Collide, is scheduled for released July 11, 2017. Alex becomes an evil witch.

Development

Colfer recorded his audio book using his own voice. The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell has been translated into several languages, including Russian, Italian, French, Hebrew, Greek, Portuguese (Brazil) and Dutch.

Heroes

Villains

Reception