Philip Reeve

Scholastic UK

RRP; $16.99

Release Date; July 2012.

ISBN9781407115276

Reviewed by Vicki Griffin. BA-UNE.

‘Goblins’ by Philip Reeve what can I say! The book itself is aesthetically pleasing, the front cover is green and is shimmery, each page has a green border around it and bits and pieces of goblins appear on the pages. Basically Clovenstone (The town) houses the most blood thirsty goblins; they love to fight amongst other things. Whilst reading this book one is drawn into a world that feels eerily real even though it is fantasy, the author has captured the imagination and run with it making a world filled with wonderfully fantastic goblins, places and people.

The language is quite witty and even though the author is from the UK it does have a universal appeal to it. Goblins has adventure and danger and the main Goblin Skarper meets a boy a real boy who wants to save a Princess! It then becomes oddly comical as they fumble around and come across some wanna be sorcerers.

The book is delightful however I found about half way through it I was becoming bored, there seems to be a lot of unnecessary ‘waffling’ going on which constantly distracted me from the storyline and I found myself having to go backwards to pick up on what character was doing what.

Overall though a great book for children who love to immerse themselves into a fantasy world full of Goblins, funny jokes, adventure and danger. My favourite chapter would be ‘Dampdrake’ I won’t say why needless to say one needs to get the book and read it. It would make an excellent gift at only $16.99 and over 300 pages money worth spent!