Parents' Guide to Beyond the Kingdoms: The Land of Stories, Book 4

Violence & Scariness

Grotesque descriptions of witches' rotting body parts, hanging eyeballs, and the like. Characters, including children, are kidnapped and imprisoned; some have their life force drained away by a witch and die; one bit of scene-setting involves coffins with dead bodies; assorted characters and factions are at war with others and perfectly willing, sometimes delighted, at the thought of killing their adversaries. Sometimes they succeed. Villainous characters hit one another. The Tin Woodman revisits how a witch cut off his limbs one at a time, then cut off his head and split open his body. A mother forcibly extracts the magic from her son and kills it, drowning it in a stream.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two teens in love: "They lay under the stars and kissed each other until there was no moonlight left for the potion to absorb." A married character is pregnant, and there's much reference to hormone surges. The villain relates how he seduced and and married a character from Book 3 as part of his takeover plot.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Hard-drinking Mother Goose returns and spends quality time getting sloshed with Merlin. She also notes, "The last time I had pixie dust was 1964, and the next day I woke up on top of the Brooklyn Bridge with a tattoo of John Lennon on my ankle."

Products & Purchases

References to events in the previous books in the series could serve a marketing purpose. Occasional references to commercial products, such as Mother Goose exclaiming "Yahtzee!" in a triumphant moment.

Language

Some juvenile humor, such as:

"'Wait, what's a Winkie?' Red asked.

"'A Winkie is how my parents told Alex and me apart when we were infants,' Conner said, and laughed hysterically at his own joke -- although nobody joined him."

Positive Messages

As usual, strong messages about kindness, friendship, collaboration, and the importance of each being's particular talents. Also frequent platitudes, such as, "Maybe greatness isn't about being immortal, or glorious, or popular -- it's about choosing to fight for the greater good of the world, even when the world's turned it's back on you." Colfer seems to see fairy tales as a superior substitute for religion, offering the idea (on pages 285–6) that fairy tales were given to human children to give them something to believe in. He also tends to caricature religion as backward and barbaric: "I was buried alive for two weeks once ... That's when I learned to ask questions before participating in a religious ritual, no matter how cute the islanders are."

Positive Role Models

Fourteen-year-old twins Conner and Alex always try to act for the best, even when it's not appreciated. They continue to have a strong bond and often come to each other's rescue. Always-annoying, self-centered Red develops leadership skills and self-reliance as she tries to rescue her imprisoned fiancé. Conner's classmate Bree, along for the adventures in Book 3, tells her parents more whoppers and goes off on unauthorized adventures -- again, to save lives and kingdoms.

Educational Value

Some historic detail as the plot jumps around in time, including 19th-century Copenhagen and remarks such as, "Well, just like I said to Lewis and Clark, North America ain't gonna explore itself." Since the story involves forays into several other books -- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Robin Hood, Peter Pan -- it may inspire kids to read these books if they haven't already and to consider alternative versions of the stories.