Chris Colfer’s novel The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns tells the story of two 12-year-old twins, Alex and Connor Bailey, who went on an adventure to save their mother, and perhaps the world, against the will of their grandmother. The Enchantress, the witch who tried to kill Sleeping Beauty, attempted to take over The Land of Stories and the Otherworld (the land where the common people live). I admired Alex for her bravery and intelligence which she showed when she was trying to save her mother and the Fairy-Tale World.
Initially, I saw Alex as very foolish and immature to run away from home, but my understanding grew when I realized that from Alex’s perspective, family is the most important of all. When Alex first appeared in the story, I thought, “Really, what can a child do in a crisis?” It turns out that children can really make a difference upon further reading. We first saw that Alex was rather frustrated when her grandmother kept them hostage from going after their mom, who had been kidnapped. So, she pried information from their ‘hostage holder’ and showed incredible bravery when she ran away from home and “hijacked Mother Goose’s giant goose” ( ), which she used to fly to her grandmother’s cottage. She also showed her bravery when she was captured by Trollbella (half troll, half goblin) in the Land of Stories. She showed bravery in this situation when she “kicked the troblin in the rump” (Line ). In the ending, Alex had the audacity to go up against the Enchantress and defeated her by using her bravery.
In summary, I came to see that by using her bravery and intelligence, Alex was really strong and she immensely cared about family in order to do what she did. Having to face the Enchantress, who killed many, being alone, was quite frightening. However, she pushed through and won in the end. Sometimes, we care about our families more than ourselves, and we all need that extra push to do the right