Little Brown, 2012
Have you ever wondered what happens to fairy tale characters after their stories end? If so, “The Wishing Spell” is the perfect book for you! Alex and Conner Bailey were twins who were magically transported to a magical world through a book called “The Land of Stories.” Shortly after their arrival, Conner and Alex discovered that the world that they had entered deserved its name. All the fairy tales that we constantly hear about in our world are present in this world—in real life! Conner and Alex soon discovered what happens after the stories end. For example, Goldilocks becomes a wanted fugitive who is constantly on the run from a pack of wolves that descended from the original Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood.
Alex and Conner were desperate to return home when they discovered, much to their dismay, that their only hope of getting home was by collecting a list of ingredients for the mysterious wishing spell that would supposedly grant the possessor one wish. The twins begin to collect the objects, and discover that the ruthless Evil Queen from Snow White was also searching for the objects. Even worse, the wishing spell could only be used once and Conner and Alex might find themselves stuck in The Land of Stories forever. I would recommend this exciting adventure to any fairy tale lover who enjoys a good hearty laugh and the knowledge of what happens after happily ever after.
Yearling, Random House, 2013
Rump was a deprived child because he was missing something that all of his friends had—a name. Rump is the story of Rumpelstiltskin’s perspective in his story and most certainly not the one that we always hear. Rump’s Mom had passed away just before she said his full name and Rump spent all of his childhood daydreaming about what his full name could be. One day Rump was playing with his mother’s spinning wheel, when he discovered a bizarre talent—he could spin straw into gold. One day, while buying his weekly food from the miller, Rump discovered that others knew his secret. The conniving miller blackmailed Rump into giving him all his gold, but even the miller couldn’t hide his gold from the king. The king soon came to Rump’s town in search of the maker of the gold and the miller, hoping for riches, falsely said that his daughter was the maker of the gold. Not wanting the miller’s daughter to die when the king found out about the treachery, Rump began to make the gold for the miller’s daughter. In the meantime, Rump began a search throughout his entire country to attempt to find his true name. I would recommend this book because it is a hilarious rewrite of a famous fairy tale that also seems to fill in some missing links.
By Josh Stiefel
Josh Stiefel is a 5th Grader at Yeshivat Noam. He’s been known to devour books. He also likes apple pie.
