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Goblin Secrets
Goblin Secrets
Goblin Secrets
Audiobook4 hours

Goblin Secrets

Written by William Alexander

Narrated by William Alexander

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

In the National Book Award–winning Goblin Secrets, a boy joins a theatrical troupe of goblins to find his missing brother.

In the town of Zombay, there is a witch named Graba who has clockwork chicken legs and moves her house around—much like the fairy tale figure of Baba Yaga. Graba takes in stray children, and Rownie is the youngest boy in her household. Rownie’s only real relative is his older brother Rowan, who is an actor. But acting is outlawed in Zombay, and Rowan has disappeared.

Desperate to find him, Rownie joins up with a troupe of goblins who skirt the law to put on plays. But their plays are not only for entertainment, and the masks they use are for more than make-believe. The goblins also want to find Rowan—because Rowan might be the only person who can save the town from being flooded by a mighty river.

This accessible, atmospheric fantasy takes a gentle look at love, loss, and family while delivering a fast-paced adventure that is sure to satisfy.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateNov 13, 2012
ISBN9781442363045
Author

William Alexander

William Alexander won the National Book Award for his debut novel, Goblin Secrets, and won the Earphones Award for his narration of the audiobook. His other novels include A Festival of Ghosts, A Properly Unhaunted Place, Ghoulish Song, Nomad, and Ambassador. William studied theater and folklore at Oberlin College, English at the University of Vermont, and creative writing at the Clarion workshop. He teaches in the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. Like the protagonist of Nomad and Ambassador, William is the son of a Latino immigrant to the US. Visit him online at WillAlex.net and GoblinSecrets.com, and on Twitter via @WillieAlex.

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Reviews for Goblin Secrets

Rating: 3.4024390365853656 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

82 ratings10 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When I was looking over the hundreds of books on my YA TBR mountain, Goblin Secrets jumped out at me. It is a 2012 National Book Award Winner in the Young People's Literature category. You can read an interview with William Alexander here. Goblin Secrets is his debut novel. Will also has a Minnesota connection since he is an Adjunct Professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I was also looking for a Middle Grade book to read next. Goblin Secrets is an enchanting fantasy is a richly conceived world where magic is possible and acting—especially while wearing masks—is forbidden. Rownie is a young orphan boy aged somewhere between 8 and 10 (he doesn't really know) who lives with Graba who takes in orphaned children to use. She provides shelter and not much else for the orphans. Rownie used to have an older brother named Rowan who was an actor but he has disappeared. Rownie is determined to find him but he is not the only one looking. Graba would like to find him as would a troop of goblin actors. Rownie goes to the goblins and becomes interested in their lifestyle. He is fascinated by the masks that let them become someone else and by the stories that they tell. Also, the goblins accept him and treat him with much more kindness than he had been shown by Graba. Together with the goblins he continues the search for his missing brother who might be the only one to stop the river from flooding the city of Zombay.We gradually learn about the city and the world with Rownie. Because he is so young, he doesn't have a full understanding of the problems that the city is facing which means that our understanding grows slowly too. I liked the adventures that Rownie had as he searched for his brother. I liked how he found his own courage and place in the world. I thought the world was fascinating and I am eager to learn more about it. I think middle grade readers will enjoy the adventure and the mysteries in this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    nice and super for me plz try this for m
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Goblin Secrets (Zombay #1) by William Alexander is a interesting steampunk fantasy book for kids. I don't find many fantasy that mixes goblins and steampunk and this worked great. A fresh mix. Good plot, great characters, interesting story all around. The best of both worlds mixed and mashed into something really special in this magical world. Loved it. I got this from the library.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Listened to the audiobook read by the author and enjoyed it a lot. Like the most beloved stories in children's literature, this one centers on an ordinary child who has an extraordinary adventure and discovers something important about himself. Listening to this story made me feel as if this were a book that was written long ago--it had the language and pacing of an old classic. I don't know how that translates on the page for the reader, but as a listener, I found it quite appealing. Filled with theatrical goblins, a mechanical legged witch, and a motley assortment of street children and suspicious pigeons, here is a book where horrible secrets are slowly revealed and a town's safety depends on finding a lost brother.

    Highly atmospheric, this would be a great story to listen to at night, under the stars.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Hmmm. I'm not really sure why this was picked as the National Book Award winner this year. I liked it better than "Endangered" but "Never Fall Down" was more powerful. I'll have to see how I feel after I read the other two.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Awesome book! I love everything about it. I love the simplicity of the language, and the weirdness of it, the author is always giving us something that we've never heard of before -- fish that live in sand, a mask that is the river, saying hello with a pebble -- a truly fantastic fantasy. The villain is incredibly creepy and the heroes are all very individual. I reacted differently from other readers in that I kind of liked the pace at which information is revealed -- very slowly, so there is always another mystery pulling you through the book. I guess I found it refreshing. There are so many books that get bogged down in too many explanations. I really didn't want it to end.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Dark, tragic, sad.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was ... perfectly fine? Fantasy story about a city that outlaws actors but has a loophole for goblin theater troupes, and there's sort of a gearworks thing (steampunk for the middle reader set?) going on, and some intriguing comments about coal, which in the world of this book is apparently manufactured from human hearts. I liked that it took itself fairly earnestly -- there wasn't anything too exaggerated or hyperbolic about it, which was a relief.It's one of those books that is billed as the first in a series, and I will probably forget about it before the second one ever comes out. If I came across the second one, I wouldn't be opposed to picking it up, exactly, but I might not recognize it, either.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Rownie is one of a flock of orphans under the "care" of Graba, a chicken-legged house-moving witch. His life revolves around running errands for Graba while scrounging enough food to live. When a troupe of goblins come to town, Rownie risks imprisonment by the guard and (worse) the wrath of Graba to see the play. He has soon joined leagues with the goblins in hopes of discovering more about the disappearance of his brother Rowan. Graba is very pissed off. This was a really cute book with a mixture of fairy tale, steam-punk, and Oliver Twist. But the execution wasn't as great as I'd hoped. I took a long time getting into the book...I felt like I should be enjoying it, but just couldn't concentrate. After I got used to the world, language, and characters, though, I enjoyed it a lot more. In the end, it was a good book, but it had potential to deliver more.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Rownie is a street urchin, one of several adopted "grandchildren" of Graba, a Fagin-like old woman who unofficially rules the southside of Zombay. Ever since Rownie's big brother Rowan disappeared, he's been sticking with Graba in hopes that she will be able to locate Rowan. Rownie eventually falls in with a group of goblins who run a traveling theatrical troupe -- Rowan was an aspiring actor, even though acting is illegal in Zombay, so perhaps Rownie will be able to locate his brother in that world. Many adventures ensue as Rownie tries to evade Graba's clutches and locate his brother, all in the face of rising floods that threaten to destroy Zombay and all who live there.So, this book has magic, goblins, theatre, steampunk (some characters have gearwork limbs or organs), and adventure. It sounds like just my sort of thing, but none of it is ever described fully, and some elements just don't make a lot of sense. There's plenty of action, but the backstory suffers in favor of chase scenes and confrontations. This may make it more appealing to reluctant readers, but I felt like there wasn't anything there to sink my teeth into, though with a little more space devoted to description, there could have been.