The Wishing Spell

“‘Once upon a time …’ [...] ‘These are the most magical words our world has ever known and the gateway into the greatest stories ever told. They’re an immediate calling to anyone who hears them—a calling into a world where everyone is welcome and anything can happen. Mice can become men, maids can become princesses, and they can teach valuable lessons in the process.’”

These lines are spoken by Alex and Conner’s teacher in the real world during a segment on fairy tales. The lecture calls to the magic of the words “once upon a time,” an opening line associated with fairy tales and, as the teacher says, an invitation for the reader to journey into a different world. The teacher’s lecture focuses on the magic and positivity of fairy tales without considering the opposite angle that is explored in The Wishing Spell. While frogs can become men and maids can become princesses, men can also be cursed to become frogs, and maidens can become fugitives. The truth of the fairy-tale world, and stories in general, is more complicated than their happiest moments.

“‘What’s the matter, sweetheart?’ he would ask with big, concerned eyes.

‘I had a really bad day today, Daddy,’ Alex said on one occasion.

‘Are the other kids still teasing you?’ he asked. ‘I can call the school and ask your teacher to have a talk with them.’

‘That wouldn’t solve anything,’ Alex said through sniffles. ‘By publicly persecuting me, they’re filling an insecure void caused by social and domestic neglect.’”

This passage comes from a flashback to a conversation between Alex and her dad. Alex gets picked on at school for being smart, and she would always go to her dad when the teasing was particularly hurtful. Alex shows wisdom beyond her years here, highlighting a few aspects of middle school. First, she recognizes that her dad’s interference wouldn’t solve anything because there’s nothing within his power to solve. Second, she understands that, like her, the other kids have insecurities and that they’ve chosen an inappropriate way to vent their frustration. These lines also show just how smart Alex is, setting her up as a critical thinker and riddle-solver.

“In her hands was a world unlike the one she lived in. It was a world unaltered by political corruption or technology, a world where good things came to good people, and a world she wanted to be a part of with all her being.

Alex imagined what it would be like to be a character in her own fairy tale: the forests she’d run through, the castles she’d live in, and the creatures she’d befriend.”

Alex thinks this when her grandmother gives her the Land of Stories book. Alex doesn’t feel like she fits in her world, and she’s always felt like she could relate to fairy tales. Having read the fairy-tale narratives that her grandmother (as the Fairy Godmother) chose to pass to the real world, Alex believes the fairy-tale world is free of strife—a place of peace where conflicts never arise. Her viewpoint illustrates the danger of filtered perspectives. Without complete information, we come to believe the information we’re exposed to as true, regardless of whether or not it is.

“He nodded again. ‘I’m really sorry,’ Conner said. ‘I hope I didn’t hurt you.’ He was so genuine that even Mrs. Peters could sense his regret. She knew that, deep down, Conner had always been a good kid—a horrible student, but a good kid nonetheless.”

This conversation between Conner and his teacher comes after he throws a book at her to distract from the humming Land of Stories book in Alex’s backpack. Following the death of their dad, Alex and Conner have struggled at home and at school. Their world was ripped apart, and neither knows how to fix it. The teacher’s suggestion of afterschool programs and self-help books show the empathy that’s triggered by difficult situations. The teacher wants to help the twins and, though throwing a book was still inappropriate, recognizes the trouble the kids are having. Her observation that Alex and Conner need to escape foreshadows them going to the fairy-tale world, an escape that helps them come to terms with their dad’s death.

“‘Conner,’ Alex whispered close to him. ‘Look around at this place! It’s like we’re having our own Lucy and Mr. Tumnus moment!’

Conner looked around and saw what she meant. ‘If he offers us Turkish delight, I don’t care what you say: We’re getting out of here!’ he whispered back.”

Alex and Conner have just arrived at Froggy’s home in the Dwarf Forest. Alex compares Conner and her to the first time Lucy Pevensie ventured to Narnia in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Mr. Tumnus is a froglike resident of Narnia who is employed by the evil White Witch to deliver any humans who enter the land to her. Later in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when Lucy’s brother Edmund enters Narnia, he meets the White Witch, who offers him his favorite food (Turkish delight) in exchange for him bringing his siblings to her. Alex and Conner’s comparisons to Narnia show their different views of fairy tales. Alex sees adventure and goodness where Conner sees potential for danger.

“‘As you can see from my shelves, I love to collect books, especially when I’m not expecting to,’ he said. ‘And these books were unlike any I had ever read! They described people and places I had never seen or heard of, and I thought I had seen it all! The authors wrote about such interesting places. Could you imagine a world without witches or trolls or giants? What imaginations!’”

Prior to Alex and Conner entering the fairy-tale world, Alex had dropped many items into the book, including books, which Froggy collected and read. Here, he discusses his excitement for such different stories and an imaginative world without many of the people and creatures who inhabit the fairy-tale world. The fantastical is a matter of perspective. To Alex and Conner, fairy tales are fantastical because their world doesn’t have magic or fairies. To Froggy, the real world is amazing because it has only humans and also because of the technology not found in the fairy-tale world—technology that is commonplace and not of special interest to Alex and Conner.

“After some time had gone by and she had gotten the hang of it, Alex moved more quickly, carefully pulling herself up using the ivy. The higher she climbed, the less she looked down at the ground, fearing it would tamper with her effort to reach the top. […]

Rapunzel’s story had always been easy for Alex to identify with. Alex felt she was in a tower of her own, looking at the world from an unreachable location.”

Here, Alex climbs Rapunzel’s tower, driven by an insatiable need to see where Rapunzel had lived. Alex’s determination shows the power of relatable stories. She found it easy to understand Rapunzel’s loneliness and isolation because those are things Alex struggles with on a day-to-day basis. To her, Rapunzel is a role model and friend, and Alex wants to honor what Rapunzel went through.

“The Evil Queen stood before the Mirror of Truth. Years of being a prisoner had taken its toll on her appearance. It was painful for her to see the aging woman who her reflection had become.

She picked up her heart of stone and examined it closely, lightly stroking its sides. The Evil Queen looked back up at the Mirror of Truth. This time there was no reflection of the disheveled woman she had grown into; this time the face staring back at her was a youthful one.

It belonged to a beautiful young maiden with pale skin and long, dark hair. She wore a long, white dress with a matching ribbon tied around the waist and was also holding the heart of stone.

The girl smiled, but the Evil Queen did not smile back. She knew the girl in the mirror very well, and she was not Snow White.”

The Mirror of Truth reflects a person’s true self. The Evil Queen’s true self is the young, beautiful girl with a heart full of love for Mira. After a lifetime of disappointment and the removal of her emotions, the Evil Queen’s sorrow has taken a toll on her. The Mirror of Truth shows the hopeful girl that was removed along with her heart, suggesting that the queen would be restored to her former self if her heart were rejoined with the rest of her.

“‘Do you ever find it overwhelming?’ Alex asked Smithers. ‘Does it ever get frightening living here and knowing that at any moment a fairy could fly by and grant you a wish, or an ogre could run up and eat you?’

Smithers looked at her curiously. ‘Does such a place exist where people can’t unexpectedly be helped or hurt?’

Alex couldn’t think of any. Maybe this world and the world she was from weren’t so different after all.”

Smithers is a delivery driver whom Alex and Conner hitch a ride with to Cinderella’s kingdom. Earlier, Alex and Froggy’s perspectives showed how the fantastical depends on perspective. Here, Alex and Smithers make the same comparison for uncertainty. Alex isn’t used to fairies or giants and thus views them as amazing things that would be difficult to cope with. By contrast, Smithers has lived his entire life in a world with fairies and giants, and he isn’t bothered by their existence or the sudden effect they could have on his life. The uncertainty of the real and fairy-tale worlds is the same. It’s only the manner of that uncertainty that changes.

“‘His brothers led massive search parties throughout all the kingdoms, but they never found a trace of him,’ Lampton said sadly. ‘Fortunately, some good came out of the search. While on the road, Prince Chandler came across Snow White in her glass coffin, and Prince Chase discovered Sleeping Beauty asleep in her castle, and they both broke the spells put on them and were married.’

‘That’s incredible!’ Alex said. ‘So if Prince Charlie never went missing, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White would still be unconscious!’”

Here, Lampton, one of Cinderella’s guards, gives Alex and Conner a tour of Cinderella’s palace. They’ve just seen portraits of the Charming family, which featured a memorial for Charlie. None of them are aware Froggy is Charlie yet or that Charlie’s transformation and choice to hide are why his brothers never found him. The circumstances of the other three brothers finding wives shows how there are positive and negative outcomes to every situation. It also illustrates how seemingly unrelated things (Charlie’s disappearance, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White) can be connected.

“‘People forget that I wasn’t liked very much by the people of the Charming Kingdom when I first came to live at the palace,’ Cinderella said. ‘Not too many people were thrilled with the idea of a servant girl becoming their queen. Many people called me the Pumpkin Princess or the Mouse Monarch when they first discovered the details of how I had come to the ball that night. I had to earn the kingdom’s respect, and it wasn’t easy.’”

This conversation between the twins and Cinderella offers more insight about perspective. Alex always admired Cinderella for remaining steadfastly hopeful in the face of cruelty, but she’d never considered the challenges Cinderella faced after marrying her prince. Alex also never thought about how the people of the kingdom would take to a servant girl becoming queen, and their reaction shows that appearances and status are just as important in the fairy-tale world as they are in the real one. Cinderella continues to strive toward being a good ruler, which shows that happily-ever-after is not the end of a person’s growth or journey.

“‘They’re going to ban you from the entire kingdom just for turning someone’s wings into leaves for a couple seconds?’ Conner asked.

‘They’ve been very strict ever since that Enchantress put the curse on Sleeping Beauty,’ Trix said. ‘The Fairy Council believes that every fairy is a representative of their order and should act as such.’”

Here, Alex and Conner have just met Trix, the fairy who was crying because she fears her upcoming trial. Her seemingly harsh punishment illustrates what happens in the wake of someone abusing power. The Fairy Council fears a repeat of the curse on Sleeping Beauty, and so they have placed overly strict rules in place out of both a desire to prevent further incidents and to make it clear they don’t condone the curse. While their rules accomplish these goals, they leave no room for harmless infractions or mistakes, which ultimately leads to more confusion and fear while citizens of the Fairy Kingdom do their best to comply.

“‘Look, orange lady,’ Conner said, ‘in the last week, my sister and I have almost been eaten by a witch, narrowly missed being attacked by a pack of wolves, were almost killed by a possessive bridge troll, survived a burning castle, and barely escaped a life of enslavement in the Troll and Goblin Territory! If you ask me, you’ve got bigger problems than a fairy turning a jerk’s wings into leaves. Looks to me like you busy yourselves with stupid little things so you feel like you’re doing something, when in reality you can’t handle what’s really going on out there!’”

This scene takes place at Trix’s trial and shows the aftermath of the Fairy Council’s tightened restrictions. They are so concerned with appearing competent that they focus too much on any tiny misuse of power to make it look like they have things under control. In reality, they are so busy looking out for misused magic that they’ve missed the troubles going on in the other lands. When leadership becomes obsessed with a single concern, all energy is put toward that one thing, leaving other situations to escalate and potentially put people in danger.

“‘I wonder what sleeping for a hundred years does to you. Every morning when I wake up for school, after about the fourth or fifth time I hit the snooze button, I always think I can sleep for a hundred years. I wonder if you’d wake up super refreshed, or if you’d still be drowsy afterward.’

‘That’s an interesting thought,’ Alex said. ‘I wonder if she dreamed about anything. I assume it would have been a very long dream.’”

Here, Alex and Conner travel to the Sleeping Kingdom. On their way, they discuss the logistics of Sleeping Beauty’s curse, which shows both considering magic and events of the fairy-tale kingdom in terms of their impact on the people. Rather than just accept Sleeping Beauty’s curse at face value, they wonder how the 100-year sleep affected her and what effects it might still have now that she’s awake.

“The twins left the castle feeling inspired by Sleeping Beauty. The fairy tale had always romanticized the bravery of the young prince and the horror of the curse that had been cast upon the land, but it had failed to mention what a strong and brave woman the sleeping beauty truly was.”

Here, Colfer comments on the typical role of female characters in fairy tales. The story Alex and Conner know emphasizes the prince’s bravery and ability to break the curse, showing how society elevates the stories and perspectives of important men. The original tale also stresses the terrible curse, which was placed by a woman, implying that women put up obstacles that men must then solve. Sleeping Beauty herself is little more than an avenue for the prince to find a bride, but the Sleeping Beauty of The Wishing Spell shows how women are misrepresented in male-centric storytelling.

“The first letter had masculine handwriting and said:

Dear Evly,

I love you more than a bird loves the morning sun. Every second I’m away from you is a moment wasted. I am yours forever.

Mira”

This is one of the letters between the Evil Queen and Mira that Alex finds in Snow White’s palace. The earlier notes show the fairy-tale narrative—Evly and Mira’s story—could have been if given the chance. They are two lovers who just want to be together and live happily-ever-after but who must overcome adversity first. The later letters hint at the adversity in their story, which they ultimately do not overcome. Love alone wasn’t enough to save them, a message that is not always promoted by traditional fairy tales.

“‘As you recall, I traded my ability to speak to the Sea Witch for a pair of legs so I could be with the prince onshore,’ the spirit said. ‘After he fell in love with the other woman, my sisters traded their hair for a knife from the Sea Witch. She said that if I killed the prince with it, I could return to the sea as a mermaid, but ultimately I couldn’t go through with it and became what I am today.’”

The spirit in this conversation is The Little Mermaid from the Hans Christian Anderson tale. Unlike other fairy-tale stories of princes and princesses, the Little Mermaid did not live happily-ever-after with her prince. Rather, she died, and in Colfer’s version, she became a sea spirit. Her tale and Conner’s question speak to the motives of fairy-tale characters. The Little Mermaid made a deal with a witch in order to be with someone she didn’t know. If she had let her impulses pass, she might not have been transformed into her spirit form. The mermaid’s inability to kill the prince shows true strength and acceptance of responsibility. She didn’t blame the prince for not loving her and realized that she made her own choices and needed to accept the consequences of her bargain with the witch.

“‘Why are you doing this for us?’ Alex asked.

‘Why do you always ask what someone’s motives are when they help you?’ the spirit asked.”

This conversation with the Little Mermaid shows a key difference between the real world and the fairy-tale world, as well as how perspective shapes our view. People of the fairy-tale world don’t question assistance because it is common for people to help one another. By contrast, Alex’s experience has taught her that people rarely help one another, which may or may not be true. It could be that Alex getting picked on and not fitting in at school have predisposed her to think good people are difficult to find and that no one wants to help anyone else.

“Suddenly, a man fell out of the mirror and onto the floor. His eyes were closed and he was breathing very heavily. He was pale and seemed paralyzed; it was as if he had just awoken from a coma.

The man was the plainest person the twins had ever seen. He had no distinctive characteristics whatsoever. He had spent so much time reflecting others that he had lost himself completely.” 

This passage comes while the twins are captured in the Evil Queen’s castle. The queen has just activated the Wishing Spell, and the man in this passage is Mira. His lack of energy and appearance suggest being trapped in the mirror changes people. These lines also speak to what happens when we give up our individuality. Though this was forced on Mira by being cursed to reflect others, the effect is the same. We are unable to hold on to ourselves when the wishes and ideas of others are our greatest influence. Eventually, like Mira, we fade.

“‘Yes,’ Snow White said. She showed no remorse with her confession. ‘I sat in her cell for hours and listened to her story. It broke my heart. So, in a final attempt to please her, I arranged for her and her mirror to be taken up the river and into the next kingdom so she could continue her work.’”

After the Evil Queen’s defeat, Snow White reveals she helped the Evil Queen escape. Though Snow White was hurt by her stepmother’s actions, she understands the effect of grief on a person. The Evil Queen had her heart and emotions removed to dull the pain of Mira’s loss, but emotions cannot be separated. The queen could not keep her ability to love others while discarding her love for Mira. Her treatment of Snow White suggests we should not judge others before we understand them. Snow White wanted to be loved and blamed the queen for her actions without knowing what hardship the queen had gone through.

“‘How much longer until this feeling goes away?’ Red asked.

‘I’m afraid traces of that feeling may be with you the rest of your life,’ Froggy said. ‘But it’ll get better over time.’”

This conversation between Red Riding Hood and Froggy comes after Red Riding Hood helps Goldilocks escape to be with Jack. Red Riding Hood still loves Jack but recognizes she can’t force him to love her. She kept Goldilocks and Jack apart for years due to her inaction to clear Goldilocks’s name, and she’s finally matured enough to stop clinging to a fantasy she’ll never have. Froggy’s message about pain does not dismiss the effect it has. Rather, he acknowledges that it’s all right to feel pain and to react to it, but if we wish to move past that pain, we must take steps to do so. Pain won’t go away by itself.

“‘What are you going to name her?’ Rapunzel asked. She was beautiful, with hair that matched the lock Alex and Conner had collected for the Wishing Spell. She wore it up in the biggest bun the twins had ever seen, and it still ran down her back and trailed behind her.

‘I can’t decide,’ Cinderella said.

‘You should name her after her aunt Rapunzel,’ Rapunzel suggested, and everyone laughed.

‘I love you, Rapunzel, but I love my daughter too much to ever do that to her,’ Cinderella said, and everyone laughed even harder.” 

This passage comes at the ball to celebrate the birth of Cinderella’s daughter. Cinderella remains unsure of what to name her child, and Colfer pokes fun at fairy tales. Rapunzel is often teased for having a difficult name that means “cabbage.” Cinderella not wanting to name her daughter Rapunzel also shows the close relationship between the fairy-tale characters. They can make jokes without hurting one another’s feelings.

“I met a group of children there who showed me around. I was fascinated by their world, but they were even more fascinated with stories about mine. They didn’t know anything about magic or fairies before I came along. Their world was so consumed with war and famine and disease … it was all they knew. They would sit for hours and listen to my stories about the world I came from. It seemed to take them away from all their troubles.”

The Fairy Godmother speak these lines after she’s reunited with Alex and Conner. She tells them the backstory of how she discovered the real world and how fairy tales became a staple of literature there. The stories she told the children of the real world were the best and happiest from the fairy-tale world, which shows that the world a story comes from doesn’t matter. Every world has its troubles, and any place can have happy stories to uplift those who are sad and need hope.