Chris Colfer’s The Land of Stories – The Enchantress Returns is a fairy-tale adventure for 9 year olds that starts with Sleeping Beauty’s worst nightmare coming back.<\/p>\n
Her kingdom has just finished celebrating. After years of struggle it has finally recovered from the hundred-year sleep, and the queen goes to bed for the first time in over a decade.<\/p>\n
A few hours later she’s woken in a panic. A spinning wheel has appeared out of thin air and burst into flames, and the thornbushes are growing back over the castle. She’s bundled into a carriage and chased through the forest by something nobody can see. Then every tree around her turns into a spinning wheel.<\/p>\n
Then we’re back with Alex Bailey, now thirteen, nodding off on the train home from an extra class in the next town. It’s been more than a year since she last saw her grandmother. No letters, no calls, not even a birthday visit.<\/p>\n
Alex has been to the Land of Stories and she can’t stop thinking about getting back. She’s started hugging a fairy-tale treasury in the school library and whispering to it (yes, people notice).<\/p>\n
At home there’s a bigger shock. Conner is waiting in the kitchen with a dozen red roses and a heart-shaped card. They’re for Mum, from Dr Bob, and Buster the dog was a bribe all along! It’s very funny and very sad at the same time.<\/p>\n
Mum’s talk with them about their dad is probably the bit that stays with your reader. She explains why she’s ready to be happy again. Conner asks a question he’s sure is childish, about heaven getting a bit awkward. What would you say to that?<\/p>\n
From there, the Enchantress carries off their mother, and the twins have to find a way back in by themselves to save her.<\/p>\n
It’s worth knowing that this is a sequel, and the opening chapters give away how the first adventure turned out. So start with The Wishing Spell if your reader hasn’t met the twins yet.<\/p>\n
The prologue is properly scary too. Soldiers and horses are flung into the trees one by one and villagers are caught by the vines, all through the queen’s carriage window. A child who’s fine with a fairy-tale villain who means business will be gripped.<\/p>\n
If it’s the Sleeping Beauty side that grabs them, The Day I Fell Into a Fairytale is a gentler way in. Lana drops through a trapdoor in a brand-new supermarket called Grimm’s and lands in Briar Rose’s palace, where the thirteenth fairy is waiting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chris Colfer’s The Land of Stories – The Enchantress Returns is a fairy-tale adventure for 9 year olds that starts with Sleeping Beauty’s worst nightmare coming back. Her kingdom has just finished celebrating. After years of struggle it has finally recovered from the hundred-year sleep, and the queen goes to bed for the first time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14091,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8964,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Day I Fell Into a Fairytale","lr_seo_hook":"Sleeping Beauty's Enchantress is back, and this time she's taken their mum.","lr_series_id":481,"lr_series_name":"The Land of Stories","lr_series_position":2,"lr_series_label":""},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[187],"class_list":["post-14092","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-adventure-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-chris-colfer"],"yoast_title":"The Land of Stories – The Enchantress Returns by Chris Colfer | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Sleeping Beauty's Enchantress is back, and this time she's taken their mum. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n