Goblins in the Castle
by Bruce Coville

This story, by the author of Aliens Ate My Homework and I Left My Sneakers in Dimension X, started its life in an elementary school classroom, where the author’s half-mad, hunchbacked brother Igor made an appearance every Halloween. The classroom tradition evolved into a storybook which finally got published, so the rest of the world can fall in love with Igor and gasp with amazement, horror, and laughter at the antics of the goblins.

The narrator is an orphan named William who was raised in Toad-in-a-Cage castle, where the Baron found him in a basket on the drawbridge one snowy night. As William grows up, he never leaves the castle or meets anyone except the Baron and a couple of servants. So he has little to do except read in the library, explore secret passageways and hidden rooms, and wonder about the moans and noises that he hears at night.

As Halloween approaches, the moans grow louder and more insistent. Even the discovery of a certain Igor, who lives in the deepest dungeons under the castle and bops goblins on the head with his toy bear, does not explain why the North Tower is never to be opened, or what is causing those noises. Finally, on Halloween night – the “most dangerous night” – a power beyond William’s control forces him to open that forbidden tower...and to unleash an angry power that has been bottled up for over a century, waiting for its revenge.

Soon afterward, William leaves the castle for the first time in his life, seeking the advice of the only one who can tell him what to do – the old witch named Granny Pinchbottom whose very name strikes fear into children all around the neighborhood. Then, aided by some magical objects, a girl of the forest, and a tiny but incorrigible goblin named Herky, William plunges into the strange and dangerous world of the goblins. He needs to save his friend Igor, who has been taken by the goblins; and he also needs to stop the enraged goblins’ plans to bring war to the human world.

Will he know the right thing to do when the time comes to do it? That’s what you’ll want to know when you read this funny, exciting tale, charmingly illustrated by the author’s wife, Katherine Coville.

Robbie Fischer
USA

Recommended Age: 10+

If you would like to contact Robbie, you may do so here.

08/10/2005