A few years ago I started hearing about the book The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer. The book sounded perfect for me – fairy tales, adventure, and strong young characters. I was quickly sucked into the story and when J heard me listening to the audiobook version of book 2, she heard the names of some princesses that she recognized and got curious. Since then, she has been sucked into the stories herself and has read and listened to them all. We also just received our copy of the 4th book in the series which came out this week, but she is rereading the first three before jumping into book 4.
Kids have a tendency to read books more than once and watch movies over and over. There is something comforting in repetition. I asked J about this once and here is what she said: “A good story never gets old, but the first time you read it is always the best. Why? Because when you read it for the first time it is so new. So many interesting facts pop up that you’ve never heard of before. Books should be interesting. BUT…a good story never gets old. I go back to some because they are so good.”
For us, The Land of Stories series is one of those series that we can read over and over again. Harry Potter is definitely another. For the Land of Stories it has to do with taking something that we are so familiar with (fairy tales) and looking at them in a different light, as if the fairy tale world was simply another dimension that keeps going on even after the stories that we know are over. I will admit that the writing isn’t perfect, but the stories are fun and it is entertaining to have adventures with characters you think you knew re-imagined. J and I think that the first two books have been the most compelling because the characters were on a quest, but book 3 being a bit slower hasn’t stopped us from being super excited about book 4.
Book 1 The Wishing Spell is a quest through the world of fairy tales. Twins Alex and Connor Bailey had lost their father about a year before the story starts. On their 12th birthday their grandmother gives them a treasured fairy-tale book. Soon they discover that the book is not your average book as it brings them into the realm of fairy tales. Alex and Conner soon discover that the stories they know so well haven’t ended in this magical land—Goldilocks is now a wanted fugitive, Red Riding Hood has her own kingdom, and Queen Cinderella is about to become a mother! To get home they have to complete the wishing spell which requires them to solve riddles to find objects in order to make a spell that will allow them to leave the Land of Stories. They meet favorite characters and have quite the adventure.
In the following books, they continue to have adventures in and out of the fairy tale world, but I don’t want to give away any of the fun details. Book four will apparently lead us through Oz, Neverland, Camelot, Wonderland and Sherwood Forrest.
While these are not the most wonderfully written books, they are wonderfully enchanting and they have definitely captured our attention. J and I were talking about these books in the car the other morning and she said “the reason you love the Land of Stories books is because Chris Colfer comes up with reasons why everything in fairy tales that we know happens.” They are just possible explanations, but they start your mind thinking that there are more to these stories and characters then what we have been shown by Disney.
The books have a lexile level at around 720 and run over 400 pages a piece.
This series looks really cool!!
It is great. We just loaned our copy to another friend who is loving it. A great way to look at fairy tales
Hi! It’s funny, I have a younger brother who does just that! He keeps re-reading series of books over and over- first with Harry Potter, then the Warrior series, the Land of stories, and now The False Prince trilogy. It drives us crazy that he’s just reading the same books over and over again (btw if you have any tips on getting a kid into a new book, please share 🙂 ) and he doesn’t want to start anything new! Mind you, based on your’s and J’s impeccable taste, I’d HIGHLY recommend reading The False Prince. It’s seriously good.
We will definitely have to check out the False Prince, although J is busy reading books for the Battle of the Books at the moment. I’ve always found that kids have to want to read a new book, it has to be their choice. Sometimes I entice J with letting her read the synopsis on goodreads or amazon, at the moment, due to Battle of the Books she is being made aware of a ton of additional books to read.
I already read all the books.