Goblins - Brian Froud

****June 17 Note: A very kind blogger, Hector Ugalde Uch left a comment with a link to the Brian Froud covers. A very big thank you to him. And, he has an amazing site devoted to pop-up books at www.librospopup.blogspot.com that is well worth visiting.******

According to Amazon.co.uk, the only review says: "This is the only pop-up book Brian has ever done and is an absolute family classic and a complete rarity as it was only published in 1983. Contains beautiful, detailed illustrations and amazing pop-up mechanics that literally bring this book alive. Incredible!"

This is the book I found at Holly-Anne's school fair a week ago. It is in pretty good condition, and for the Out of Time 2 Challenge I decided to forgo British Folk Tales by Katherine Briggs, for this one. And, it is as the above quote says, incredible. The illustrations are in colour, and the story is about a little girl named Myrtle who is taken to the woods to see goblins by Edward. She keeps saying she doesn't see any goblins.....but of course, we do! I have not shown this yet to my kids (even though i bought it for them) for fear I won't get it back or it will get ripped. I love it already! The goblins ARE scary, and hidden in trees, behind rocks, in the ground, even the trees have faces. She sees a fairy ring but no goblins even though they fill the entire page and pop out at the reader!! She even finds a stone with a hole through it, but still can't see any goblins. This is a delightful, wonderful book for the whole family to read and enjoy together. Can you find the goblins? How many can you see? you'd say to the children, and try to count how many on each page. The illustrations are rich - not bright colours, but earth colours of brown and green and tan, as befitting goblins, creatures of the earth that they are. While the goblins have threatening expressions, the spirit of the book and the two characters is so much fun that any child couldn't help but laugh even if the goblins scared them! Myrtle is so convinced there aren't any that even when they jump out, she can't see them!

This was a real find, a real treasure. And I guess tomorrow - and on June 20, the summer solstice, a magical time of year! - I will let my kids look at the pictures and maybe pull at the flaps.........Books are meant to be loved, after all, and I want my children to have a sense of wonder and magic and believe that fairies are possible....though after reading the stories in The Fair Folk, I'm not sure I want to meet any!

I will save British Folk Tales for next year. I do want to read it, I'm just not in the mood and am running out of time. Once I saw Goblins, I realized I wanted something fun, since alot of my reading for this challenge has been serious and big books! Since I don't own any books by artists of fantasy or fairies, this is my first picture book with that feeling of Faerie. And of Puck, and Will Shakespeare, who I am reading on Friday night in honour of the solstice, as Carl mentions in his post for the OUT2.


The book ends with the little phrase "Where Thorn-trees abound
There Goblins be found"

I'm counting this book as my folk-tale entry into the Out of Time 2 Challenge.

This was fun!!