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 19-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary: “The Thornbush Pit”
The mermaids bring Alex and Conner as close to the pit via water as they can, and the twins walk the rest of the way. Despite how amazing the Land of Stories is, they are anxious to get home and not be in danger anymore. Though, they resolve to learn as much about the place from their grandmother as they can.
The pit is huge and filled to the brim with mostly dead plants. Beneath, the thorny vines move around “like thousands of snakes” and make the twins uneasy (349). They put on the necklaces, and the moving vines shy away as they climb down into the pit. They find the dagger, which is made of coral and sea glass, and start to climb back up. A vine knocks Conner’s necklace away, making both necklaces useless, and vines shoot toward the twins. The vines wrap themselves around the twins just as they reach the top and drag them back. Froggy arrives and pulls them out. He’s been searching for them for days. The Fairy Godmother is looking for them. Froggy promised to bring them to her, and in exchange, she would return him to his true form. Even though they have all the items for the spell, the twins can’t let him down and agree to help.
The group hears a scream and sees Goldilocks on her horse galloping toward the pit, dragging Red Riding Hood behind her. Goldilocks tries to push Red Riding Hood into the pit, but Red gets away and runs up the ruins of a nearby castle. Goldilocks pursues her to the top and pushes red into the pit. Right before the vines pull her down, the huntress lassos Red Riding Hood and drags her off behind her horse. The Big Bad Wolf Pack surrounds Goldilocks, Froggy, and the twins. Froggy runs for help while the others are captured, and Goldilocks ends the chapter telling the twins to be brave because “courage is one thing that no one can ever take away from you” (363).
Chapter 20 Summary: “Heart of Stone”
The wolves take Goldilocks and the twins to the castle in the Sleeping Kingdom where the Evil Queen waits. After tying up the prisoners, the huntsman and his daughter lay out the Wishing Spell items. Watching the Evil Queen handle the bottle with the fairy tear infuriates Conner. They’ve worked too hard for the Evil Queen to take their chance at going home, and “if they weren’t going to get to use the Wishing Spell, then neither was she” (369). He squirms one leg free and kicks the bottle out of the Evil Queen’s hand, sending it flying to shatter on the floor.
It will take days to collect a new fairy tear, time the Evil Queen doesn’t have. The magic mirror tells her Froggy amassed an army and is on his way. The Evil Queen studies Alex with an intense stare before sending Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood away with the huntsman and huntress. Conner asks why the Evil Queen is so evil, and she responds by telling them her story.
The Evil Queen is Evly from the letters Alex read. She grew up in a village, where she fell in love with Mira. The night before their wedding, the enchantress who’d cursed Sleeping Beauty and caused such strife in the lands came to the village and kidnapped Evly, taking her far into the mountains to be her slave. Mira found her and vowed to free her, but the enchantress imprisoned Mira in a mirror, breaking Evly’s heart. She killed the enchantress but couldn’t find a way to free Evly. Unable to handle the pain, she sought the help of a witch, who cut out Evly’s heart and turned it to stone. The queen took over the Northern Kingdom and raised Snow White, using her royal status to continue her search for a way to save Mira.
Snow White grew into a beautiful young woman. One day when she snuck into the queen’s room, Mira saw her, and from then on, he told the queen how lovely Snow White was. The queen tried and tried to kill Snow White, but she kept evading death, and Mira faded even more. The Evil Queen has spent a lifetime trying to reclaim something she lost, but her heartbreak and hardship don’t matter because she’ll only be “forever known as the vain queen who tried to kill the poor, innocent, and helpless Princess Snow White” (379).
The queen finishes her story, and Alex can’t help the tears streaming down her face. The Queen’s pain reminds her of the ache from losing her father, and the similarities between them unsettle her. The queen catches one of Alex’s tears on her finger and flicks it onto the table with the other Wishing Spell items, which begin to glow.
Chapter 21 Summary: “The Mirror”
The Wishing Spell has been activated, and the Evil Queen wishes to free Mira. Golden light engulfs the mirror, making the glass melt away so the mirror looks like a doorway. Mira falls out of the mirror, breathing heavily and with little energy. The queen picks up her heart and reunites with the emotions trapped within. She takes Mira in her arms, who briefly recognizes her before he dies. Alex and Conner watch as the queen holds his body and weeps.
Outside, the Big Bad Wolf Pack sees the approaching army and runs back into the castle to get Red Riding Hood. The army gives Jack and Froggy ten minutes to free any innocent people trapped inside before they open fire on the castle. Jack finds Goldilocks in the dungeon. Jack dodges arrows from the huntsman until an arrow bounces off the wall and lodges in the huntsman’s back, killing him. The huntress lunges to kill Jack, but Goldilocks picks the lock of her cell, gets free, and engages the huntress in a duel. The huntress runs, and Goldilocks gives chase.
Meanwhile, Red Riding Hood got free and ran with the wolves in pursuit. She gets trapped on a landing where the stairs have disintegrated. The leader of the wolf pack stalks her until a cannonball crashes through the wall and smacks into him. The landing collapses, and Red Riding Hood Falls. Froggy catches her right before she hits the ground. The two find Alex and Conner still tied up while the Evil Queen cries over Mira’s body. Froggy frees the twins, and Alex gathers up the Wishing Spell items. She begs the Evil Queen to come with them, but the queen doesn’t respond. The glass of the magic mirror starts to grow back just as another cannonball hits the castle. The mirror falls on the queen and Mira, trapping them inside. Alex takes the stone heart and sees her reflection in a piece of the other shattered mirror, which shows her with wings.
Outside, the twins and the others see Goldilocks and the huntress fighting near the top of the castle. Part of the roof gives out beneath Goldilocks, and the huntress moves in for the kill. Jack fires a cannonball at the huntress, killing her and sending the castle and Goldilocks tumbling down. Froggy goes in to search the rubble and finds Goldilocks, alive but limping. Jack and Goldilocks share a kiss before the leader of the army proclaims Goldilocks under arrest. Red Riding Hood pardons Goldilocks for all her crimes, but that doesn’t mean anything for all the crimes Goldilocks committed in the other kingdoms, which are enough that “she’s going to spend the rest of her life in prison” (398).
Chapters 19-21 Analysis
The Thornbush Pit is made up of the thornbushes that once surrounded Sleeping Beauty’s Kingdom and suggests that magic in the fairy-tale world never truly dies. The plants once grew and grew, covering the Sleeping Kingdom, and in the pit, they continue to writhe as if the spell was never broken. It may be that the vines still hold enough energy to influence the Sleeping Kingdom, which is why the citizens find it so difficult to stay awake. If the level of magic within the vines was reduced, they might go inert, and the Sleeping Kingdom may no longer struggle with tiredness.
Alex and Conner’s reaction to Froggy’s request shows they are true heroes. The twins have everything they need for the Wishing Spell, and they know the longer they stay in the fairy-tale world, the more danger they are in and the more they risk the Evil Queen finding them. Still, they can’t leave Froggy, who helped them by introducing them to the Wishing Spell, when they know how important having his curse removed is to him. Though it means delaying their mission, the twins help, which is the catalyst for the final battle at the Evil Queen’s castle.
The Evil Queen’s story illustrates the idea that heroes and villains are the same. She has been cruel in the name of finding love, but her quest to save Mira means nothing to the fairy-tale world when put beside how she treated Snow White. Mira’s death shows that some stories truly don’t have a happily-ever-after. The Evil Queen worked for years and did everything right, but in the end, she still lost Mira. Using the final casting of the Wishing Spell wastes the magic because it doesn’t truly give her what she wants.
The Evil Queen’s story shows how events influence one another. The struggles she faced are an origin story for Snow White. Mira’s fixation on Snow White was more fuel for the Evil Queen’s heartbreak, which led to the story of Snow White that’s known in the real world. If the Evil Queen had succeeded in saving Mira, it’s possible that her story would have been told and that Snow White never would have become the well-known character she is.
