#37: The Land of Stories--The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

I am always searching for new chapter books to read to my Kindergartners.  It's hard to read Junie B. Jones and The Magic Tree House books year after year.  So, when I caught Chris Colfer on Live with Kelly and Michael (my summer guilty pleasure) and heard that he had a sequel to his first book coming out and that it was a book about a fairy tale land, I immediately ordered the first book, knowing that it would be perfect to read to my kiddos at school.

Oh, how wrong I was.

I could NEVER read this book to my students.  Well...I could...the year I wanted to get fired! And, it's not that I couldn't read this to 5 /6 year olds.  I wouldn't read this to 5th/6th graders and the book's main characters are 11 years old.  Good grief!  The theme of the book and overall plot is a good one.  It's been, perhaps, done before, but it's clever and creative and even though I thought I knew what was going to happen in the end, I was surprised.  So, it is a sad, sad thing that because the language is inappropriate it will stay on my shelf at home and not be read to my students.  I'm sure that the wording was done so to keep 5-8th grade students interested in the book, but with a few revisions, the novel could be way more far reaching to a wider audience.  It's sad.  Truly.  But I could never read the following sentence to my children:  "If I were Cinderella, none of this crap would be happening."  (that's a line from Red Riding Hood--who knew she had a potty mouth) nor could I read the line when Goldilocks calls Red Riding Hood a "basket carrying bimbo"  or when Red retaliates by calling Goldie a "fugitive floozy" or when Goldilocks is angered to the point of screaming "Son of a witch!"  REALLY? Is that necessary in a children's book?  And this is only a sampling.

Bottom line, you could easily read this to your own children and either read it as is and discuss the language or read around the inappropriate language.  But, as a classroom teacher, I could never bring this book into my classroom.  Parents would complain and I wouldn't blame them a bit.  I complained while I was reading.  The language just isn't necessary and it takes a book that could've been truly extraordinary and turns it into something that I can't recommend. 

Happy reading everyone!
:) Dodie