53 pages • 1 hour read
Chris ColferThe Wishing Spell
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 summary: “From the Mouth of a Frog”
Alex falls and falls until she lands on a path in the middle of a forest. Conner lands beside her, and they find the miscellaneous items Alex has been dropping through the book all week. Before they can figure out where they are, a group of armored soldiers rides by on horses, each carrying a shield with a red apple on it. The twins find a wanted poster for Goldilocks, and with a jolt, Alex recognizes the forest from the pictures in the fairy tales their grandmother used to read. To a wide-eyed Conner, she explains that “we’re actually in the Land of Stories” (85).
Alex and Conner argue about being in the land of fairy tales until a frog wearing a suit asks if he can help them. Alex and Conner are too shocked to answer. A pack of wolves howls nearby, and the frog tells the twins to follow him to his house, where they’ll be safe from the things that stalk the forest at night. Conner protests, but Alex drags him along.
The frog’s home is in a hollowed-out hill beneath a tree, complete with bookshelves and warn sofas. He hasn’t always been a frog. He’d once been a man who took his good looks for granted, and a witch cursed him, presumably to teach him a lesson. He tells the twins to call him Froggy and explains they are in the Dwarf Forest, which is mostly populated by criminals and is the place people go when “they don’t want to be found” (94).
Froggy is amazed at how little the twins know about the world, but further explains about the other kingdoms that are ruled by fairy-tale characters like Cinderella, Snow White, and Red Riding Hood. The kingdoms make up the Happily-Ever-After Assembly, which is what allows the lands to live in harmony, and there is a Fairy Council that consists of Cinderella’s fairy godmother, Mother Goose, and other fairies from the tales. The Red Riding Hood kingdom has a wall around it to guard against the Big Bad Wolf Pack, descendants of the original Big Bad Wolf and the source of the howls they heard earlier. Other than the pack and a few other minor disturbances, everything’s been peaceful in the fairy-tale world up until a week ago when the Evil Queen escaped Snow White’s dungeon.
Froggy realizes that Alex and Conner aren’t from the fairy-tale world. He has a journal written by a man who was seeking the ingredients for the Wishing Spell—a spell that, when all the components are collected, will grant any wish, no matter how extravagant. The journal’s author wanted to use it to find the woman he loved in another world, and Froggy thinks the spell could help Alex and Conner get home. Alex asks why Froggy didn’t use the spell to wish himself human, to which Froggy responds that he’d have to face the world in his frog form to find the ingredients and isn’t ready to do so. Alex and Conner stay the night, but neither sleeps well because they know they’re about to “embark on the greatest scavenger hunt of their lives” (104).
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Dwarf Forests”
The next morning, the twins set off to find the ingredients for the Wishing Spell. As they walk, they discuss what to do next. Conner wants to look through the journal for the spell ingredients and where to find them, but Alex fixates on the map Froggy gave them and all the parts of the fairy-tale world she wants to see. Conner can’t believe Alex wants to stay in the fairy-tale world for longer than they need to. Alex argues that she doesn’t have friends or a life to go back to. The characters of fairy tales are her friends, and she refuses to go home until she meets them. Conner tries to persuade Alex by mentioning how worried their mother will be and that time may pass differently in the fairy-tale world. Alex says nothing, but she has the same fears.
After a bit, the twins find a gingerbread house. The witch who lives there invites them in, but remembering Hansel and Gretel, they start to leave. The witch appears in front of them, blocking their escape and saying they’ll make a lovely snack. Conner tells the witch she should snack less and turn her house into a gym. The witch looks confused, and Alex uses the opportunity to make up a new law from the Happily-Ever-After Assembly that says witches must grant a wish to anyone who gives them a good idea. The witch agrees, and Conner wishes she “would become a vegetarian” (116). The witch loses her appetite and goes into her house.
After a few more hours of walking, the twins stop in a clearing to rest. Someone approaches, and they hide, peering out to see Goldilocks, who’s much older than her picture on the wanted poster. Wolf howls sound, and the Big Bad Wolf Pack surrounds Goldilocks. She fights them off, and the pack retreats. Before she leaves, she gives Alex and Conner a knife for protection. The twins hurry toward the edge of the Dwarf Forest.
Chapters 5-6 Analysis
The two worlds of the story collide in these chapters. Chapter 5 is mainly a vehicle to deliver information about the setup of the fairy-tale world. Froggy’s explanations tell the twins and the reader how life has progressed since the happily-ever-afters people in the real world are familiar with. The Big Bad Wolf Pack being descendants of the original Big Bad Wolf and the apples on the shields of the soldiers are examples of how both heroes and villains from the original tales have progressed. Froggy’s explanation, the map, and the journal foreshadow the twins traveling across all the lands of the fairy-tale world. The journal was written by their father, and the book represents how their dad is still with them in spirit and how he is showing them his home, in a way.
Together, these chapters set off the main conflict and goal of the story. Alex and Conner begin their hunt for the Wishing Spell ingredients, and we learn that the Evil Queen is no longer in captivity. Alex and Conner’s differences of opinion in Chapter 6 show that, while the twins love each other and will do anything to protect the other, they have very different opinions about what they are willing to put up with. Alex feels like she’s finally come home, but Conner wants to return to the real world as quickly as possible.
Their encounter with the witch in Chapter 6 is one example of how Colfer updates the fairy-tale world. In the original story, Hansel and Gretel entered the candy house and were eaten. Here, Alex and Conner outsmart the witch by making up fake laws from the fairy council. It may be that their partial fairy nature gave them an air of authority they didn’t realize they had, or it could be that the witch is out of touch with the world and doesn’t keep up with the changing laws of the land. Conner wishing for the witch to become a vegetarian shows his ingenuity. Where Alex thinks of fairy tales in the strict terms of their original forms, Conner’s ability to improvise and add new elements to the stories saves them.
