As we set out to review this book we were reminded of trusted parents, friends of this site, who had stopped allowing their children to read this series years ago. This prompted us to do some additional research around the series instead of simply reviewing the first book. We are glad we did. In place of concerning details around this first title we want to provide a few glimpses of where this series headed, many years down the road. This should make the reasoning for our “Avoid” verdict clear. --- The author of these books is openly gay. The most recent books in this series (or rather the new series “set in the Land of Stories universe”) are “A Tale of Magic”, “A Tale of Witchcraft” and “A Tale of Sorcery”. Tale of Sorcery has an openly gay character. This brought a lot of attention around this new series, and questions around the previous one (Land of Stories). While he didn’t come out and say previous characters in the Land of Stories books were openly LGBT in an article with Entertainment Weekly he admitted, “I dropped hints along the way. I would describe their interests and their looks and their preferences, hoping that readers would pick up on it — and a lot of them did — but this is the first time I've been able to explore their orientation and be very open and honest about it. I actually refrained from using the word "gay" because so many books get banned in so many countries the minute you have the word "gay" in the text. I think I was able to write a whole coming out story without ever having to use any terms. So hopefully that'll get into the hands of the kids around the world who need it the most.” In the same article he also states, “A Tale of Magic was based on what it's like to be a member of the LGBTQ community and to have to go through the periods of abuse and harassment, and trying to find a world that loves and accepts you.”