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A Grimm Warning is the third children's fiction novel in The Land of Stories series written by Chris Colfer. The book was first published on July 8, 2014 by Little, Brown and Company (a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.), New York.
In A Grimm Warning, twins Conner and Alex Bailey both face challenges of their own as well as unite to save the Land of Stories from a new threat.
Publisher's Summary & Jacket Interior Summary[]
Publisher's summary: Conner Bailey thinks his fairy-tale adventures are behind him—until he discovers a mysterious clue left by the famous Brothers Grimm. With help from his classmate Bree and the outlandish Mother Goose, Conner sets off on a mission across Europe to crack a 200-year-old code.
Meanwhile, Alex Bailey is training to become the next Fairy Godmother… but her attempts at granting wishes never go as planned. Will she ever be truly ready to lead the Fairy Council?”
When all signs point to disaster for the Land of Stories, Conner and Alex must join forces with their friends and enemies to save the day. But nothing can prepare them for the coming battle… or for the secret that will change the twins’ lives forever.
The third book in the bestselling Land of Stories series puts the twins to the test as they must bring two worlds together!
Dedications, Epigraphs & Acknowledgements[]
Dedication: To J. K. Rowling, C. S. Lewis, Roald Dahl, Eva Ibbotson, L. Frank Baum, James M. Barrie, Lewis Carroll, and all the other extraordinary authors who taught the world to believe in magic. When I think of all the time I spent inspecting wardrobes, spotting second stars to the right, and waiting for my Hogwarts acceptance letter—it’s no wonder I didn’t get good grades. Also, to all the teachers and librarians who have expressed their support for this series and incorporated it into their classrooms. It means more to me than words can describe.
Epigraph: "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." -Winston Churchill
Acknowledgements: I’d like to thank Rob Weisbach, Alla Plotkin, Rachel Karten, Glenn Rigberg, Derek Kroeger, Lorrie Bartlett, Meredith Wechter, Joanne Wiles, Meredith Fine, and my second brain, Heather Manzutto. Thanks to Alvina Ling, Melanie Chang, Bethany Strout, Megan Tingley, Andrew Smith, and everyone at Little, Brown. My parents, my sister, Grandma, Will, Ash, Pam, Jamie, Jen, Melissa, Babs, Dot and Bridgette, Romy, Roberto, Char, Whoopi, Brian, and the rest of my friends and family who have provided material for this book without realizing it. Jerry Maybrook for spending countless hours with me recording audiobooks and for baking the best homemade bread I’ve ever tasted! The people at St. Matthäus-Kirchhof cemetery and Neuschwanstein Castle. And to all the readers who send me artwork of their favorite characters and book reports—nothing makes me smile more!
Main Plot[]
Plot by Chapter[]
Prologue: Guest of the Grande Armée[]
1811- One of the commanders of the French Grande Armée has kidnapped the Brothers Grimm. He knows they have been getting their stories from fairies and demands to know how to get to the fairytale world. He has also captured Mother Goose and her golden egg, but she escapes as soon as she wakes up. The Brothers Grimm are given an ultimatum.
Chapter 1: An Educational Opportunity[]
Conner is about to leave on a three day trip to Germany with Mrs. Peters and some other students to witness the first reading of three fairytales by Brothers Grimm that were found in a time capsule. He briefly speaks to Alex, whom he misses very much, through their magic mirror. She says she has been learning a lot and living in the Land of Stories is like a dream come true.
Chapter 2: The Hall of Dreams[]
During her training as a fairy, Alex is ambitiously trying to grant three wishes before noon every day. Helped by her unicorn Cornelius, she finds three people with a wish (one of them the father of Rook, a boy she finds rather interesting), but her attempts to help them backfire. Frustrated, she returns to the Fairy Palace and talks to the Fairy Godmother, who explains that not everyone with a wish wants to be helped. She shows her the Hall of Dreams to help her choose which wishes she can grant.
Chapter 3: The Book Huggers[]
Conner leaves for Germany with Mrs. Peters, Bree and the Book Huggers. Bree suspects he has a crush on her and then The Book Huggers confront Conner regarding Alex Bailey. They suspect Alex isn't in "Vermont".
Chapter 4: A Wedding In The Woods[]
Alex meets Rook again and he asks her for a walk. She accepts, but is very wary of her own feelings. Goldilocks and Jack get married in the The Dwarf Forests. Mother Goose acts as the wedding officiant.
Chapter 5: Insight At The Grave Site[]
Conner arrives in Berlin and attends the reveal of the new fairytales. Two of them turn out to be very familiar (The Curvy Tree and The Walking Fish). The third is a warning of sorts about an army approaching the land of Stories. Conner tries to reach Alex to warn her, but to no avail. Meanwhile Bree has recognized Conner's "original stories" and is very surprised.
Chapter 6: Queen Red's House of Progress[]
Alex joins Queen Queen Red Riding Hood at the House of Progress to talk about Rook. Little Bo Peep arrives to challenge Red's claim on the throne on the Red Riding Hood Kingdom.
Chapter 7: Little Bo Peeping[]
Alex and Rook go on a walk to get to know each other better. They go spy on Little Bo Peep and discover she has a magic mirror hidden in her barn, through which she communicates with a mysterious lover. Alex suspects she wants to become queen to free him.
Chapter 8: The Fairy Inaugural Ball[]
After an inauguration test at the Fairy Ball, Alex is accepted into the Fairy Council. She meets Rook, who has sneaked in to see her. Rather than being upset that she didn't tell him exactly who she was, Rook is very impressed and they share their first kiss. Three witches arrive at the ball uninvitedly and give them a prophecy about an approaching 'army of thousands'. Mother Goose knows what this means and contacts Conner.
Chapter 9: Abandon Trip[]
Conner and Mother Goose talk through the mirror. The Grimm's third fairytale is true and the French army is traveling through a portal to the Land of Stories, on a route that would take them 200 years to get there. Mother Goose never told anyone about it because the portals were all closed after the Enchantress was defeated- but now they may have re-opened. Conner has to check a portal on his side. Bree overhears their conversation and, after hearing the truth from Conner, offers to help him.
Chapter 10: The South Bank Lion[]
Conner and Bree travel to London and find the South Bank Lion, who tells them where to find the portal and how to activate it. The portal is in Germany, but they need a magic panpipe to open it, which is in Mother Goose's vault in Monte Carlo.
Chapter 11: The Lumière des Etoiles Casino[]
Conner and Bree travel to Monte Carlo accompanied by "Granny Pearl", an old German woman they took with them from London so they wouldn't look suspicious traveling alone. They retrieve the panpipe from Mother Goose's vault and travel to Neuschwanstein, Germany.
Chapter 12: The Secrets of Neuschwanstein Castle[]
Conner and Bree find their way to the castle and trick a local boy into sneaking them inside. They discover the portal and activate it: Conner, Bree and the boy Emmerich are sucked into it.
Chapter 13: The Evicted Queen[]
Bo Peep challenges Red to a debate before the election. It doesn't go well for Red. She loses the election and her throne. She is evicted from the castle. Alex takes her and Froggy to the Fairy Palace and they find out the Fairy Godmother is sick. Froggy turns back into a frog.
Chapter 14: The Armée Arrives[]
Conner, Bree and Emmerich arrive in the Land of Stories. So does the Grande Armée. General Marquis interrogates a man from the Eastern Kingdom and then has him killed. He advances to Pinocchio Prison to recruit the prisoners for his army.
Chapter 15: A Bittersweet Reunion[]
Alex finds out her grandmother is dying; this is why the magic is starting to fail and Froggy turned back into a frog and the portal reopened. Conner, Bree and Emmerich arrive and they fill each other in on the situation. Bree and Emmerich cannot go home yet because the portal is only half-opened (one way).
Chapter 16: The Masked Man of Pinocchio Prison[]
Most prisoners in Pinocchio Prison join the Grand Armée. One prisoner in particular, the Masked Man, offers to help General Marquis. He says the only way to defeat the Fairy Council is to have a dragon on their side, and he knows where to get one.
Chapter 17: The Only Witness[]
Alex and Conner go to Pinocchio Prison and talk to Gretel. They find out that the Armée wants to get a dragon. When they find their camp, they see them and their new allies are preparing for war.
Chapter 18: Sending the Swans[]
Alex assembles the Land of Stories monarchs and makes a battle plan; splitting up the armies, keeping the royals ( including Bree, Emmerich and Red) on the move on a magically hidden path to keep them safe, and going to negotiate with the Troblins and the Elves to join them. Jack and Goldilocks arrive to protect the royals.
Chapter 19: An Icy Trade[]
General Marquis and the Masked Man travel to the Northern Mountains to retrieve a dragon egg from the Snow Queen. She wants the Northern Kingdom in return. General Marquis wants to kill the Masked Man after receiving the egg, but the Masked Man convinces him they need his knowledge about hatching dragons. The Snow Queen prophecises that the Masked Man's identity will soon be revealed.
Chapter 20: The Great Troblin Lake[]
Alex and Conner visit Trollbella at the Troll and Goblin Territory (now The Great Troblin Lake). Thinking she'd never see Conner again, Trollbella has found a new love interest called Gator. To make Conner feel better about this, she agrees to let them have her army.
Chapter 21: From The Ashes[]
The royals pass a village that has been destroyed by the Grande Armée, its only survivor a small baby. Queen Sleeping Beauty decides to adopt the baby and she names her Ash. Upon seeing the destruction, Red realizes she wants learn to fight and asks Goldilocks for lessons.
Chapter 22: To The Core[]
The Armée is hatching the dragon egg in the Eastern Kingdom, making captured villagers work for them. Thanks to Alex strategy, their scouts are fooled into thinking their opponents' armies are smaller than they are.
Chapter 23: The Elf Empire[]
The Troblins agree to join Alex and Conner. After this, the twins travel to the Elf Empire. Empress Elvina is opposed to helping them because of the way the elves were treated by the Fairy Council in the past, but Alex convinces her by promising to abolish the Happily Ever After Assembly and founding a new, inclusive assembly with Elvina. Before the elf army can join their forces, however, they are attacked by the Armée. Lester, Alex and Conner are badly wounded and fall somewhere in the dwarf forests.
Chapter 24: The Forgotten Army[]
The Charming Kingdom is under attack. Its civilians join the army to help fight off its attackers.
Chapter 25: The Healing Flames of Hagetta's Fire[]
Alex and Conner wake up in a witch's cottage; she is Hagetta, Hagatha's sister, a healer. She helps them get well by magic. She also tells them about some of the others she has helped in the past (Goldilocks, Little Bo Peep). It turns out that the man in Little Bo's mirror was actually the masked man, and Hagetta had given them a mirror to communicate through. She also reveals Little Bo was the one who turned in the masked man (he didn't know) because she was pregnant with his child.
Chapter 26: Feeding The Creature[]
The dragon is hatched, but the Armée has lost a lot of men in the fight against the Charming Kingdom. To save his father and the other villagers, Rook offers to bring the army to the royals in return for the villagers' freedom. The royals are ambushed and captured.
Chapter 27: The Signal In The Sky[]
To rally all armies at once, Alex and Conner join forces to achieve "the greatest magic ever attempted"; turning themselves into a shooting star as a signal and means to transport all the armies to the Fairy Palace.
Chapter 28: The Battle For The Fairy Kingdom[]
General Marquis is about to execute the royals, but Alex and Conner arrive just in time. The kings and queens, Jack, Goldilocks, Froggy, Red, Bree and Emmerich are freed and rather than hide, the royals stay and fight. Bo Peep flees and Froggy and Red try to find her. Alex finds out Rook betrayed them. The soldiers of the Grande Armée are defeated, but General Marquis refuses to surrender. The Masked Man arrives with the dragon.
Chapter 29: The Dragon Awakes[]
The Masked Man reveals his plan of using the Armée to get to the Fairy Palace to take his revenge on the fairies with the dragon. He makes the dragon kill the General. Bo Peep tries to stop him, appealing to their love, but fails. She dies of heartbreak. Rook leads Cornelius and the unicorns into an attack against the dragon. Alex begs her grandmother for help; the Fairy Godmother wakes up and defeats the dragon, using her last magic. She then passes on.
Chapter 30: Returning To Magic[]
After honoring the fallen, Bree and Emmerich return to their world. Before she goes, Bree confides in Conner that she has a crush on him too. Rook comes to talk to Alex, but she doesn't want to be with him anymore. Conner decides to stay in the Land of Stories for now to help Alex get used to being the new Fairy Godmother.
Chapter 31: The Dawning[]
Alex founds the Happily Forever After Assembly and appoints Jack and Goldie to capture the escaped criminals from Pinocchio Prison. Froggy is elected King of the (former) Red Riding Hood Kingdom / Bo Peep Republic. He decides to name the kingdom the Center Kingdom, a name he hopes will last. Red proposes to Froggy in order to be queen again and he says yes. The fairy castle is attacked by the remainder of the Armée, but it is only a distraction so the Masked Man can sneak into the Fairy Godmother's room. Alex catches him in the act and is shocked to see who he really is underneath his mask. She tells Conner that the Masked Man is their father, who supposedly died three years ago.
Quotes[]
"So far we've run away from our principal, kidnapped an old lady, lied to a concierge, and tricked an innocent German boy into believing we're secret agents." - Bree
“You gave goldilocks her first sword? That's like giving Shakespeare his first pen.” - Conner
"The first cut is always the deepest, but not every cut leaves a scar" - Red
"I’ve always believed there is more to life than most people are willing to believe. You’re just the first person to prove it to me." - Bree
"People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones" - Conner
"Misery fills the emptiness that hope leaves behind when the world disappoints you." - The Masked Man
"If you spend your whole life worrying about getting hurt, then you aren't really living. You don't want to shield yourself so much from the bad stuff that nothing good gets to you either." - Red
Reception[]
Praise for the Land of Stories Series:
"It will hit big with its combination of earnestness and playful poise." (The New York Times Book Review).
"It's hard not to love [the book]...Colfer gets off many good lines [and] the nifty ending ties the plot's multiple strands up while leaving room for further fairy tale adventures." (Publishers Weekly).
"A magical debut." (Family Circle).
"Captivating." (Teen Vogue).
"In The Land of Stories, Colfer showcases his talent for crafting fancifully imaginative plots and multidimensional characters." (Los Angeles Times).
"There's more in Colfer's magic kingdoms than Disney has dreamt of." (USA Today).
Editions[]
