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Chris Colfer's The Land of Stories - Beyond the Kingdoms is a fairy-tale adventure for 9 year olds where a magic potion can turn any book into a doorway.
It starts in 1845, with Hans Christian Andersen stuck on the first line of a story. He keeps screwing up his drafts because he's worried what the church will think of a bird.
His old friend the Fairy Godmother drops by with a worry of her own. Her younger son, Lloyd, never smiles and only wants to read. So Hans has an idea. What if you could walk inside a book?
Weeks later she pours three drops of a brand new potion onto Frankenstein and steps straight into a world of spinning words.
Then we're back with the twins. Alex Bailey is the Fairy Godmother now, and she and Conner have spent five months hunting the Masked Man. He's got that potion. Now he wants a tavern full of witches to help him raise an army he's dreamed about since he was a boy.
The witches' meeting is SUCH a good scene. A stone witch keeps throwing rocks into the cauldron to shut everyone up (until she runs out). A weepy witch with a carrot nose turns out to be Goldilocks in disguise, sword and all. And Red Riding Hood spends the whole fight choosing tablecloth fabric for her wedding!
That's what it's like to read. Huge chases and magic one minute, someone being gloriously silly the next.
There's a more serious thread running through it too. When Alex gets angry her eyes glow, her hair floats and the magic just happens without her. By the end of chapter one even her friends are a bit scared of her.
The Masked Man rolls off a flying roof and the twins believe he's taken his own life, then his body can't be found. Alex's trees squeeze a soldier by the throat. A witch's arm gets sliced off (it grows straight back), and Goldilocks says "damn" once. If talk of someone ending their life would upset your reader, that chapter is one to read together. If they love a proper villain, they'll be gripped.
This one sits well into the series and leans on a war and a dragon from earlier books. If your reader's new to the twins, The Wishing Spell is where it all begins.
If stepping inside a book is the part they love, try Tilly and the Bookwanderers. Tilly lives above her grandparents' bookshop, and characters from her favourite stories start turning up there. Alice is sitting on the stairs throwing jelly beans at the cat!
A library hand-picked by an English teacher, delivered through a calm, ad-free app. If your child already loves reading, we keep up.
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