Henry's Once Upon a Time Book

"They're not fairy tales... Every story in this book actually happened."

- Henry to his birth mother

Henry's Once Upon a Time Book, commonly referred to as Henry's Book or simply The Book, is a magical item featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the first episode of the first season.

Trivia

 * -|On-screen Notes=

On-Screen Notes

 * There are some stories that do not exist in the book such as Frankenstein due to unknown reasons. Henry theorized that Dr. Frankenstein's story is not in the book since he does not originate from the Enchanted Forest as the other people in the book do.
 * However, the books does in fact contain images from other realms: Alice and the Caterpillar, and the Mad Hatter, in Wonderland, Dorothy Gale and the Flying Monkeys in Oz, and an illustration of Mount Olympus.
 * The walls and floor on the storybook page with the door, which Henry finds, have the same design as the inside of Jefferson's hat.

Stories
THE BOOK CONTAINS EXCERPTS FROM THE FOLLOWING FAIRYTALES AND STORIES

THE BOOK CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING ORIGINAL STORIES
 * The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, chapter 14: The Winged Monkeys
 * Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, chapter IV: "The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill" and the opening of chapter V: "Advice From a Caterpillar"
 * "The Golden Bird"
 * "Snow-White and Rose-Red"
 * The Adventures of Pinocchio, chapter 3
 * The Charles Perrault version of "Cinderella"
 * "King Thrushbeard"
 * "The Queen Bee"
 * "The Water of Life"
 * "Rinconete y Cortadillo", a short story by the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes. The exact same text appears on two different pages.
 * The Water-Babies, chapter IV

Illustrations
Some of the illustrations in Henry's storybook are classic illustrations by well-known illustrators:


 * The picture of Dorothy and the Flying Monkeys is "The Monkeys caught Dorothy in their arms and flew away with her", one of W. W. Denslow's illustrations from the first edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
 * In "Pilot", the opposite page contained an excerpt from the fairy tale of "The Golden Bird". In "Snow Falls", the text has been replaced with a story about how Prince Charming set the trap for Snow White.
 * The illustration of Alice and the Caterpillar is a colorized version of one of John Tenniel's illustrations from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
 * The same illustration is on the cover of the novel that Will Scarlet steals from the library.
 * Some of the images were created by the famous English book illustrator Arthur Rackham:
 * "The waiting maid sprang down first and Maid Maleen followed" from the fairy tale collection Little Brother & Little Sister and Other Tales By The Brothers Grimm (1917). It depicts a scene from the Grimm fairy tale "Maid Maleen".
 * "He played until the room was entirely filled with gnomes", also from Little Brother & Little Sister and Other Tales By The Brothers Grimm. This image depicts a scene from the Grimm fairy tale "The Gnome".
 * "The Meeting of Oberon and Titania" (1905), from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
 * The same picture can be seen in Once Upon a Time Volume II; however, the angle makes it very unclear.
 * A cut-out from this illustration, showing Titania, can also be seen in Henry's room.
 * Another cut-out can be seen on one of the missing person posters outside the Storybrooke Town Hall when people are searching for their loved ones after the breaking of the Dark Curse.
 * An illustration from a 1922 edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's children's book A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys. It depicts a scene from the story "The Paradise of Children".
 * The same illustration is in Isaac's book Heroes and Villains. Both pages also feature the same excerpt from the fairy tale of "The Golden Bird", indicating that the same prop was used for the interior of both books.
 * A 1909 illustration from the fairy tale of "Little Red Riding Hood".
 * "What did she find there but real ripe strawberries", also from Little Brother & Little Sister and Other Tales By The Brothers Grimm. This image depicts a scene from the fairy tale of "The Three Little Men in the Wood".
 * An illustration from Grimm's Fairy Tales - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham (1909), later re-published as Snowdrop & Other Tales By the Brothers Grimm (1920). It depicts a scene from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of "The Seven Ravens".
 * The same picture can be seen among the numerous fairytale illustrations pinned to the wall in Henry's room.
 * "When he heard Peter's voice he popped in alarm behind a tulip", from J.M. Barrie's book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906).
 * "Fairies Away! We Shall Chide Downright, If I Longer Stay" (1908). It depicts Titania in a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
 * "Preposterous! cried Solomon in a rage", also from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens.


 * -|Production Notes=

Production Notes

 * When creating the book, the prop department brought in every style and type of book they could find, and picked out an antique accounting book. They aged it up a little, and the art department would press stamps into the cover of the book to change the cover. A book builder made replicas of the finished product. The prop department created many pages with text on them, and added several illustrations.
 * The show does several transitions from the book to live action. If they're lucky, the prop department creates an illustration out of a screen-grab and inserts it into the book. If the prop department's schedule takes before the filming of the main action of the story line, they put a green page in the book, and the visual effects department will make their own illustration.


 * -|Cultural References=

Lost

 * The storybook page where young Regina is running away and the page Robin Hood finds are number XXIII (as Regina points out), a reference to the fifth Lost number, 23.


 * -|Goofs=

Goofs

 * When Henry is given the storybook in October 2011, he sees a picture of the scene with Geppetto, Jiminy Cricket and Pinocchio right before the Blue Fairy's arrival. However, the story of Pinocchio being sent to the Land Without Magic along with Emma was not in the book until August added it several months later.
 * In "The Brothers Jones", Regina says she ripped out pages about herself from the Once Upon a Time book during the first curse so that Henry would not know she was the Evil Queen. In fact, Henry ripped out pages of Emma's story from the book that takes place in "Pilot", and Regina sees an illustration of herself while browsing the pages in "The Thing You Love Most".
 * Adam Horowitz confirmed this was a mistake.


 * -|Other Notes=

Other Notes

 * A blank prop replica of the book was signed by Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Ginnifer Goodwin, Lana Parrilla, Josh Dallas, Emilie de Ravin, Robert Carlyle, Michael Raymond-James and Colin O'Donoghue for a September 2013 Stand Up 2 Cancer charity event.

Appearances
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.