The Land of Stories

About The Land of Stories

Twins Alex and Conner Bailey fall through a magic book left by their grandmother and land in the Land of Stories, a fairy-tale world where every classic story -- Cinderella, Snow White, Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks -- actually happened, and its characters have gone on living their lives long after "happily ever after." What starts as a mission to find a way home becomes a sprawling quest involving a fairy-tale-wide prophecy, warring kingdoms, an escaped villainess called the Evil Queen, and Alex's own growing magical destiny.

Chris Colfer (best known as an actor from Glee) writes the twins as a genuinely well-balanced pair -- bookish, magically-gifted Alex and practical, sarcastic Conner split narrative focus fairly evenly, and their sibling dynamic anchors a plot that otherwise sprawls delightfully across dozens of reimagined fairy-tale characters and settings. The tone stays fun and fast-moving even as the stakes escalate across the six books, mixing genuine fairy-tale wonder with contemporary humor.

The series was a bestseller on release and has spawned a full expanded universe, including the prequel-adjacent spin-off series A Tale of Magic, cementing Colfer's fairy-tale mythology as one of the more ambitious modern additions to the portal-fantasy genre for middle-grade readers.