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Introduction
Hobnobbing with a troupe of theater goblins, hiding from Graba the witch and her Grubs, and avoiding the metallic clutches of the city’s Guard, young Rownie sets off on a dangerous quest to find his missing brother. In William Alexander’s award-winning novel Goblin Secrets, classic fantasy characters and modern steampunk elements come together to create Zombay, a city where witches cast spells, goblins wear masks, and clockwork machines stand guard.Story Line
In Zombay stray children invariably find their way to Graba and become her possessions.Graba is a witch with clockwork legs and often moves her house around forcing her acquired children, known as “grubs”, to find her. Rownie, the youngest in Graba’s house of strays, is a sensitive, observant child who desperately misses his older brother Rowan who disappeared after secretly performing in a play. Acting is illegal in Zombay unless you are a goblin. Only goblins, who are changed creatures, are allowed to wear masks and act out made up stories.
One day, while out running one of Graba’s mysterious errands, Rownie finds himself donning a mask and performing with a troupe of goblins. When the goblins reveal they, too, are looking for his brother, Rownie decides to escape from the witch’s house; however, Graba’s dark magic and obsessive nature create dangerous situations for Rownie and his goblin friends forcing them to be constantly on guard. As Rownie spends time with the goblins in their clockwork tower, he learns some of their secrets: Real villainy lies at the heart of Zombay and only one person has the power to stop the great River from flooding over and destroying the entire city.
Avoiding the mayor’s watchful guards, hiding from spying pigeons, and performing seemingly make-believe plays, Rownie and the goblins stay one step ahead of danger and the law hoping to find Rowan before the coming of the terrible flood.
Author William Alexander
William Alexander is a folklorist and theater lover at heart, which didn’t surprise me after reading Goblin Secrets. Alexander studied theater and folklore at Oberlin College and English at the University of Vermont. He’s written a number of short stories for magazines and anthologies, but Goblin Secrets is his first published book. Alexander lives and teaches in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His second middle grade book set in Zombay is Ghoulish Song, released in March 2013. (Sources: Author Biography: Simon and Schuster, Ghoulish Song: Simon and Schuster, William Alexander’s Web Site)Awards
2012 National Book Award Winner for Young People’s LiteratureAudioFile Earphones Award for the author’s reading of the audio edition of Goblin Secrets
My Recommendation
The brilliance of this story lies in its unique sense of place, colorful characters, and appealing story line. First, Alexander establishes the city of Zombay with intricate details reminiscent of Victorian England: a flowing river, a bridge linking two opposite sides of town, market vendors hawking goods, and entertaining street performances. Add to that appealing setting clockwork mules, guzzards, and dustfish then toss in some goblins, witches, and a Lord Mayor who runs his industrious city on a mysterious type of coal energy and Alexander has presented readers with a dazzling, yet sinister, original setting.Second, a host of colorful characters from Graba the obsessive witch to Thomas the taciturn Tamlin (the more respectable name for a goblin) inhabit Zombay. Alexander imbues each player in his story with strong character traits to make them so noticeable and memorable it’s as if they could walk right out of the pages of the book. Whether villain or hero, each character is carefully crafted giving readers the opportunity to visualize their physical looks as well as understand their individual personalities.
Finally, besides being a clever fantasy adventure story, Goblin Secrets, at its core, is a story about a lonely, lost boy searching for his place in a family. Although on a fast-paced adventure, Rownie’s thoughts are to finding his brother and reconnecting to that feeling of belonging. He wears his memories on his sleeve and carries a pebble in his pocket for that moment when he can drop it into the river and say hello.
Goblin Secrets is a tightly crafted story steeped in originality. A quick, enjoyable read at 240 pages, this is a lovely book that I highly recommended for fantasy readers ages 9-13. (Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, 2012. ISBN: 9781442427266)