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In The Wishing Spell, books represent the way that stories can connect people to the world beyond their own narrow experiences. They also illuminate how stories can help human beings to understand life and their role in it. Mrs. Peters explains the educational and moral purposes of fairytales to her students (including Alex and Connor), and later Grandma (also known, in the Land of Stories, as the Fairy Godmother) confirms the teacher’s claims. After she gives it to the twins as a birthday gift, Grandma’s chronicle of the history of the fairy realm—a book titled The Land of Stories—becomes the literal portal between worlds for Alex and Connor. Their experiences in the fairy realm help them to grow outside of their own habitual tendencies, show them how to take responsibility for their actions, and help them better come to terms with the loss of their father. In other words, the things they learn while literally inside the pages of a book have a real-world impact on their daily lives, proving that stories have the magical ability to help people grow and mature.
Books Quotes in The Wishing Spell
The The Wishing Spell quotes below all refer to the symbol of Books . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3 Quotes
“Whenever you’re feeling down, on the days you miss your dad the most or when you just wish I were here, all you have to do is open it up and we’ll all be together in spirit, reading along,” Grandma told them. “Now, it’s getting late, and you have school tomorrow. Let’s get ready for bed.”
[…]
Alex took The Land of Stories to bed with her that night. She gently flipped through the old pages, being careful not to tear them.
Seeing all the colorful illustrations of the places and characters again made her feel like she was reading an old scrapbook of sorts. She loved spending time reading about fairy-tale characters more than anything. They had always felt so real and accessible to her. They were the best friends she had ever had.
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Books Symbol Timeline in The Wishing Spell
The timeline below shows where the symbol Books appears in The Wishing Spell. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...asks the children to read the real version of “Little Red Riding Hood” in their books, then assigns them a paper in which they describe the moral lesson of their favorite...
(full context)
Chapter 3
...travels. But there’s also Grandma’s cherished copy of The Land of Stories, the beautifully illustrated book of fairy tales from which she read to the twins when they were younger. The...
(full context)
Chapter 4
...Alex bursts into tears and says she doesn’t know. All week long, she explains, the book has been acting strangely. It seems to absorb anything she puts on top of its...
(full context)
But then the book starts glowing again. Connor and Alex can hear birdsong emanating from it. Alex carefully places...
(full context)
After just a few minutes, the book starts buzzing again. This time, Mrs. Peters hears it. She circles the classroom, looking for...
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...hits Connor. Alex is going to try to escape her problems by going through the book’s glowing pages herself! Ignoring Mrs. Peters’s command to stay put, he dashes from the room...
(full context)
Chapter 5
Connor struggles to accept the idea that they’ve fallen into the book itself. He gets more and more agitated, but Alex is still glad that he’s there,...
(full context)
Chapter 14
...Land of Stories. They discuss the possibility together now. After all, the adults had the book for years before the twins got it. On the other hand, Connor points out that...
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Chapter 23
...in Snow White’s castle. They even get to meet the seven dwarves. Alex reads every book in the royal library, hoping to find another way to get home, but she has...
(full context)
