The Boy Who Conspired with a King

Combining the imaginative powers of ABC's Once with the whimsical humor and irony of Adam Gidwitz's A Tale Dark and Grimm, Fairendale is an epic middle grade fantasy series that follows fairy tale villains, unexpected heroes, and the magical world that unites them all.

The woods are full of unspeakable terrors.

Tom Thumb has been battling those terrors for more than a moon. After a Vanishing spell sent him from Fairendale to the snowy White Woods of White Wind, he encounters bees, scorpions, and dung beetles, narrowly escaping them all thanks to tiny hiding places, his needle sword, and sheer luck. All he really wants to do is return to Fairendale and resume his predictable, scheduled life. But after a fairy saves him from becoming the dinner of a terrifying Lionant, the fairy demands a favor: Steal an enchanted shield from a faraway king.

Perturbed by the schedule interruption (bedtime is calling), Tom Thumb embarks on the adventure and meets the foreign king, who is much kinder—especially about Tom's thievery—than he expected. And when the two discover some seven league boots in exactly Tom's size, Tom's dream of returning home seems all but assured. But magic is working against him, and the question becomes not can he return but will he return before dark forces gather against him?

The Boy Who Conspired with a King is the eighteenth book in the Fairendale series, an epic fantasy middle grade series that explores both familiar and unfamiliar fairy tales, legends, myths, and folk tales. The world of Fairendale revolves around villains and heroes—all on a quest for what they believe is right. Throughout the series, the story of the royal family of Fairendale is woven into the story of fairy tale children fleeing for their lives—children who become what we know as fairy tale villains (according to traditional stories), for one good reason or another.

One cannot always know, at first glance, who is the villain and who is the hero.