Nobody Likes a Goblin, by Ben Hatke

Review copy provided by First Second Books.

Ben Hatke’s books have ranged from the nearly-wordless Little Robot to the far more verbal Zita the Spacegirl series. My personal favorite is probably Julia’s House for Lost Creatures, a charming and beautiful tale.

Nobody Likes a Goblin is toward the young and simple end of Hatke’s range. Goblin lives in his dungeon with his friend Skeleton. They have a routine they like, games they play. But–as you might expect–there is a certain type of person who does not like goblins.

Luckily, there is another type who does.

The plot is simple, the style unmistakable, the ending sweet but not as cloying as it could be given the premise. Nobody Likes a Goblin is unlikely to change your world, but it might well take a young reader’s fancy–or even more likely, a pre-reader’s. A fantasy reader who wants to start young minds dungeon crawling early could do worse than Nobody Likes a Goblin.

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Originally published at Novel Gazing Redux