Once Upon a Time (Book)

The Once Upon a Time Storybook is an important magical item featured on ABC's ''Once Upon a Time. ''

Before the First Curse
Merlin and his apprentice had the responsibility of choosing an Author whose sole task was to record the stories of people (mainly fairy tale characters) living in Story Realms using a magic quill.

At some point in his life, Walt Disney was chosen by Merlin and his apprentice as the Author. Walt served as the Author, recording many fairytales until his death in December 1966. After Walt's death, the Apprentice hired Isaac Heller as the new Author.

Issac travels the realms of stories and eventualy meets Cruella De Vil. Her story is written sometime between meeting Isaac and entering the Land Without Magic. Issac is fired as the Author after he changes Snow White and Prince Charming's story (He manipulates them into transfering the darkness in their unborn daughter into Maleficent's baby). Because of his actions, the Apprentice imprisons Issac in the book, in an illustration of a locked door.

During the First Curse
When the Dark Curse is cast, the book, along with most of the Enchanted Forest is sent to the Land Without Magic, coming into Snow White's posession. She gifts the book to one of her student, Henry Mills, to cheer him up. After reading some of the book, Henry becomes convinced that most of the town is under a curse, and that they are all fairytale characters who were trapped in this land by the Evil Queen (also known as Regina Mills, his adoptive mother). Henry manages to track down his birth mother (Snow White and Prince Charmng's child), purposely leaving the book in her car after she returns him to Storybrooke.

Henry rips the last few pages out of the book (the one's that show Emma's birth), so that Regina cannot see them.

Trivia

 * The Author is not allowed to write their own happy ending in the book or they will be fired.
 * It is unknown which stories Walt wrote, and which ones Issac wrote.
 * The show implies that Issac wrote Cruella's story and thus the story of 101 Dalmatians.
 * This is interesting, since the film version of the story was made and released during Walt's life (in 1961), before Isaac would even be able to discover the existence of Cruella, meaning that Walt should have written her story and not Isaac.
 * Henry is the only known Author who has not written any stories since getting the position.
 * He is also the only known Author who possesed the storybook before becoming the Author.
 * There may possibly be other Once Upon a Time Storybooks in existence, as Henry states that Dr. Frankenstein does not appear in the book, despite appearing in Storybrooke as part of the curse.
 * It is implied that characters who appear in the book were the ones who were taken to the Land Without Magic during the Dark Curse.