Children's fantasy book, two siblings find themselves in a strange fantasy land with different unique areas; such as a desert with spider skeletons, a lagoon you can breathe under & meet a siren queen, a witches tower, a pirates cove.

[Haley]

Hello all! This is going to be sort of a long post. I’ve been trying to find a book I read between ages 11-15, in 2010-2016. Not sure when the book was published, but I’d say between 2005-2012. It was a cute fantasy book for children, probably for middle school readers. It had two main characters, a brother and sister. I’m not sure how they end up in this magical land (possibly someone was kidnapped?) but the end goal is to try to save the land and/or get home. They book had lots of pictures, and it had a map and I believe a “secret code” page so you could decipher texts that were in said book. The book without its picture cover was red, with faux gold detailing/lettering. On the map and in the book, there were different places, one was in a desert with giant spider skeletons/bones, a witches tower, an underwater staircase located in a lagoon that you could walk down and meet a siren queen, pirates, talking creatures, and more. I do believe at the end of the book they end up in a castle of the good guys and there’s good fairies there to help them home or something of the sort. One of the talking creatures was possibly a frog, wearing a wizards outfit.
Its a single book, not a series.

* edit * there is also possibly a magical maze in this land.
At some point going down the underwater staircase, they have to hide from a shark. When they get to the siren queens castle, she tries to make the brother stay and marry her. they run away, and she sings a song to try and lure them back. When she sings this song, its a watercolor picture of her singing.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Haley, please put some of those plot details into your title/header, per the Group Rules. Your query is more likely to be spotted by the people who can help you find it.

[Haley]

Done, thank you !

[Haley]

I remember some more about the book; when they were trying to scale the witches tower, the witches were throwing things down at them.

[Blue]

Do you remember what the cover looked like?

[Haley]

Blue wrote: "Do you remember what the cover looked like?"

The cover was colorful, i would say bits of blue and green, like grass and flowers and water type background. Same gold lettering on the cover though. But without the book cover, just the plain book, it was completely red with gold letting and detailing. the pages mightve had gold on the edges.

[Haley]

Its also possible the cover had a castle in the background with a rainbow over it, possibly with fairies.

[Haley]

OH! there was also a quote somewhere in the book similar to this > ""i sat under a palm tree, hoping a coconut wouldnt fall on my head. and then a coconut fell on my head.""

[Blue]

The Wishing Spell

Maybe one of this series by Chris Colfer?

[Haley]

Unfortunately not, but the covers of the books look eerily similar!

[Haley]

I also vaguely remember the two siblings walking through a set of small doors and then ending up in the fantasy land, if that helps

[Haley]

If anyone can think of the book title please let me know! I’m desperate to find this book!

[Kris]

Please note you can bump your request (post a comment) every 30+ days - or sooner if you remember more information. Not more often because this group is so large.

Tips for posting a book request - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Haley]

bump

[Capn]

Hey Haley,

Did you find this book? :) (If so, which is it?!)

Can you elaborate a bit on the "magical maze"? Like a mirror maze, or a hedge maze, or endless doors and corridors? Inside/outdoors?

Just in case it's already here, there's a now list for juvenile mazes:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...