Once Upon a Time: A Story Collection (Ever After High)

I admit that I’m mainly aware of the Ever After High series due to seeing the book and the dolls featured at my job around late 2013. I remember putting up one of the Ever After High dolls during the beginning weeks around the my job’s grand opening to the public. I was thinking that the summary of one of the dolls I saw does sound like a good cartoon to watch. Imagine my surprise when I did discover that there is both a cartoon and book series around the Ever After High Dolls. This book Ever After High once Upon A Time; A Story Collection by Shannon Hale is a fascinating and original read for both aspiring writers/scriptwriters and people who simply enjoy uplifting fantasy stories (including for children obviously). This book creatively tells various tales of offspring who are living a happy and enriching life but there is also understandable emotional conflict around wanting to avoid following in the family legacy if it is shadowy. For instance, the story of Apple White and The Ebony-Haired Legacy shows a girl who very much enjoys life while preparing to follow a destiny similar to her mother Snow White. Quirky pop culture references are shrewdly sprinkled and Snow White is mentioned as being a big music lover and an implied fan of One Reflection and their song You Don’t Know You’re Charming (I’m guessing a respectful tribute to One Direction’s You Don’t Know You’re Beautiful). Apple White enjoys listening to music on her Mirror Phone. Then there is the story of the Raven Queen and the Mirror Prison featuring Raven Queen, a direct descendant of the Evil Queen in the story of Snow White (due to Raven Queen being the Evil Queen’s daughter). Raven Queen loves her mother, but is understandably conflicted about following the dark destiny that her mother expects her to. Raven Queen is mentioned as being an implied fan of Tailor Quick because she is listening to a Tailor Quick album on her MirrorPod (I’m guessing polite homage to the Apple iphone and/or Apple ipod). Fortunately, the enjoyable cartoon series of Ever After High is currently available for free on Netflix and Youtube (although I’m currently unsure of how long it will be free). Watching the cartoon series gives an important creative glimpse into the characters and plot development of ever after high. For me, one of the reasons why I’m glad to have unexpectedly come across the series (as an aspiring writer/scriptwriter) is due to the brilliant and unique story development in an enchanting mystical world.

A cute collection of stories. I believe most of them are easy to get on the Ever After High website as free ebooks but there were a few extra I had not read before. Personally, I like the short stories better than the actual book series. Worth the buy for a EAH collector and good for any fan to add to the bookshelf.

Great book for girls! My daughter got this book for Christmas and she absolutely loves it! It is a perfect book to continue the Ever After High series. If more books come out, I am sure she will want more. It keeps the girls not only knowing the princesses, but now their children. It is a new way of looking at the princesses, especially since these girls are around the ages.

Great book for kids it is pretty thick got it for a reasonable price and it came in a timely manner and it was not damaged thanks so much

I have 3 boys, ages 11, 8 and 6 and I've spent the past several nights reading this to them. And they all loved it. Yes, it's basically girly but the characters are fun and the stories are charming. I especially liked the fairy tale puns, such as the One Reflection concert and the mirror-pods! My boys had fun guessing whose child each character would turn out to be. I particularly liked the characters from Wonderland, although I couldn't quite tell if Kitty Cheshire was a girl or a cat! A fun book for any kid who likes fairy tales, or for kids like mine who have moms that insist on reading them. :) -Anita Valle, author of The Nine Princesses Novellas

I am a new adult fan of Ever After High. I don't have any dolls yet, but I've seen some of the webisodes. I got this book, because it was recommended to me to read, even though I saw the webisodes about the different characters, this book tells stories of some of the characters of their home life before they go to Ever After High. I think the book was well written and the pages are decorated so beautifully. I think it is for about middle school aged kids but I didn't care. I loved the book.

I love it! I love Shannon's Ever After High books! They are so easy and fun to read and really capture the EAH world spirit and magic!!! The cover of the book and the inner pages are also beautiful!!! Definitely recommend! 100% satisfied!!! Thanks a lot! ♡

My oldest granddaughter is an excellent reader, far beyond her grade level. It is hard to challenging reading and yet appropriate reading for a ten year old. Her mother is a school teacher and I had her approve the series before starting it. My granddaughter enjoys the characters, the charm and the story of this series.

...Ever After High. There were previous releases of short stories for Ashlynn, Raven, Hunter, Madeline, Apple and Briar - but somehow a lot of the others were missing. Now you can have some more insight in the stories of the other characters like Lizzie or Cedar - I hope there will be more releases regarding other pupils background stories like cupid for instance.

A great read! I just finished reading this book to my 6 yr old the other day and it was pure delight for both of us. She'll no doubt read the books again when she's old enough (maybe 11 or 12), and she can finally catch the fun nuances she misses now. This book is definitely for people who are already familiar with the Ever After world. It provides satisfying insights into a number of characters, and for some characters adding whole new dimensions to them. As if Shannon Hale had to do anything more to make me her fan, this supplementary book is just delicious! Being an anthology, it's more lighthearted than her "Story Book of Legends" 3-book set, and easier to digest for my 6 yr old (though my daughter loves the trilogy too). There are so many intriguing characters in the Ever After world, it was great fun to get to know more of them better. I knew I'd enjoy this book, and I still enjoyed it more than expected. The stories really serve to deepen ones sense of the characters, especially providing richness to the minor characters that we rarely hear about enough. As a bonus, it included the first 2 chapters of Ever After High: Next Top Villian by Suzanne Selfors. Selfors' writing style is different than Hale's of course, but I think it seems consistent enough that if you get hooked on the books by one author, you'll enjoy the books from the other, too. I must admit that for me, the books have ruined the TV show because it just pales in comparison to Hale's books. For my 6 yr old, the books heightened her love of the TV show. Regardless, we both are enjoying this Ever After world that Matel created, and I'm grateful they hired such top talent to bring it all together. See my review of the Story Book of Legends 3 book set for more detail on why I love, love, love Ever After High!

I think that this was a good book.For aged 5-10. I rated this book 5 stars because it tells a lot about the characters from ever after high. My favourite chapter was Briar Beauty And The Jewelry Thief. I liked all the excitement to find that it was just Briar's brothers!

I loved it, but why are there 2 books in the pictures???

Very nice book for childern and adults the book is amazing