The Goblin Wood [Library Binding]

Hilari Bell (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

It began with the chiming of the tiny copper bell on the mantel, warning them someone was passing the ward stone her mother had placed on the path to their house ...

One terrible day, Makenna, a young hedgewitch, witnesses her mother's murder at the hands of their own neighbors. Striken with grief and rage, Makenna flees the village that has been her home. In the wilds of the forest, she forms an unexpected alliance. Leading an army of clever goblins, Makenna skillfully attacks the humans, now their shared enemy.

What she doesn't realize is that the ruling Hierarchy is determined to rid the land of all magical creatures, and they believe Makenna is their ultimate threat - so they have sent a young knight named Tobin into the Goblin Wood to entrap her.

In this captivating fantasy adventure, the difference between Bright and Dark magic is as deceptive as our memories, hopes, and fears -- and the light of loyalty and friendship has a magic all of its own.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-Fantasy and intrigue blend in a mythical medieval land where good and evil are not always clearly distinguishable. When the story opens, 12-year-old Makenna has just witnessed the murder of her mother, the local hedgewitch, by decree of a priest of the Hierarch, aided by the villagers whom Makenna's mother had always helped. Angry and bitter, the grieving girl seeks revenge on the village and runs away into the woods, where she encounters and befriends the goblins-a small, magical race of people who are being systematically exterminated by the Hierarch. Advance five years to another part of the Hierarch's territory and meet Tobin, a knight who takes the blame for his younger brother's role in an attempted coup. Tobin will be allowed to redeem himself by capturing the sorceress who has aligned herself with the goblins. This, of course, is Makenna. When the two young people meet, they discover that the world around them cannot be viewed as all good or all bad and together they attempt to provide a safe haven for both humans and goblins. Fantasy novels for young people do not often explore the gray areas, which makes for some interesting and thought-provoking reading here. However, Bell provides few transitions between times and places, making it difficult to discern what has happened and where readers are in this mythical world. This lack of transition detracts from an otherwise promising political fantasy.
Sharon Grover, Arlington County Department of Libraries, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 6-10. After her mother is drowned as a sorceress, young hedgewitch Makenna flees into the woodlands. While there, she accidentally antagonizes some goblins, who plague her until she captures one, Cogswhallop, and inadvertently puts him in her debt. As she travels with Cogswhallop, she learns goblin rules about repaying a favor, and she soon finds herself united with goblins in a battle against the ruling Hierarchy, bent on eradicating all magical creatures. Five years later, a young knight comes to Goblin Wood to trap a powerful human sorceress who is thought to lead an army of enslaved goblins. By this time, Makenna has become a strategist par excellence and the Hierarchy's greatest threat. Leavened by humor and a dollop of romance, this well-crafted fantasy adventure demonstrates Bell's talent for creating enduring characters and worlds. It also has a cliffhanger ending that begs a sequel. The author of A Matter of Profit (2001) comes through again. Sally Estes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Library Binding: 304 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1 edition (April 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060513721
• ISBN-13: 978-0060513726
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,768,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Me the writer--a loose, not-really-biography of Hilari Bell.

A lot of writers will tell you that they've been writers from the time they were children--well, I'm not one of those people. I was always a reader. There's nothing better than falling into the world of a book and just living there till the story's over...and even then, it stays in your head and heart. At least, the best ones do. But writing came a lot later, in school assignments--which I enjoyed, but still, assignments. Homework no less.

I started writing seriously when I first got out of library school. I'd been reading picture books preparing to do storytimes, and I thought, "Picture books. They're short. They're for little kids. How hard could it be?" Several years and dozens of unsold--and unsalable--picture books later I'd found out how hard they could be! Picture books are harder to write (a good one, anyway) than anything except poetry. And they're harder to sell than anything but poetry, too.

One of the things I've learned about writing over the years is to never say never, because whenever I've said "I will never write XYZ" within a few years I end up writing it. Some true examples: I could never write a novel. I could never write a young adult novel. I could never write science fiction. I could never write an adult novel. I could never make those books a romance. (OK, so I haven't actually made them into a romance, but a lot more romantic elements are creeping into my writing.) I should probably say, I could never write a best seller, just to see what would happen... Hmm. I could never write a best seller!

OK, Murphy's Law being what it is, that probably won't work. If for no other reason than that, primarily, I write for me. This is something I probably shouldn't admit, but I don't really care that much about my audience. (Sorry, audience.) I write the books I want to read. I tell the stories that I want to tell. And I write to make the story the best it can be...because the story is what I care about it. I love it when other people care about my stories too, but that's not my primary motivation. Which is the other reason "I could never write a best seller."

(I know it probably won't work--but it doesn't hurt to try, now does it?)

--Hilari

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inventive story that really makes you think, October 28, 2005

By 

guitarchick24 (USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Goblin Wood (Paperback)

Hillari Bell is a master of character twists. By that I mean that her characters aren't obvious - good people can be bad guys, it just depends on your perspective.

"The Goblin Wood" is a good example of perspective and how it depends on where you stand to justify what you believe. At first glance, it doesn't seem right that the humans are trying to eradicate the goblins from the forest... But when you get the bigger picture, you understand the reasons why, even if you don't agree with the method to get there.

I suppose a simpler, happy ending to the story would have been if everyone could have come to some sort of peaceful compromise... but then again, people who are different from each other don't always stop to chat first, do they?

I have to wonder, from the ending of the book, if Bell plans on doing a sequel. It fairly screams, "What happens next?"

Overall, a great book that will linger in your mind long after you've finished it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A different kind of Goblin fantasy, October 21, 2004

By 

Spy Groove "Ravenna" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Goblin Wood (Hardcover)

I can not say what exactly makes this book different from any fantasy I've ever read. The description was vivid, even the tiniest details of reaction/thought which are usually not mentioned in this kind of story, can take you back to reality but somehow managed to keep your environment with the goblins which sound a bit odd to you maybe but it happened to me.

Maybe the way Ms. Bell building her character and situation that was easily accepted and consistent throughout the book. The politics reasons in conflict with the goblins' was so well developed that you can not just say right or wrong about each side. This book really show you how it was like to have something in the middle, when everything has its own right and wrong. Yet all was told in not-so-flourish language.

Although I think the way out for the ending was a bit too coincidental (because I feel it was too simple but again maybe I wouldn't like it better any other way) , the last chapter brought a lot more feeling to the whole story. My eyes just soaked a bit with a big smile on my face after reading the last word.

What a gem. I simply love it :)

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richie's Picks: THE GOBLIN WOOD, June 12, 2003

By 

Richie Partington "Richie's Picks" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Goblin Wood (Hardcover)

"...As I returned across the fields I'd known
I recognized the walls that I once made
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid..."
--Sting

Tobin, though innocent, has pled guilty to treason, sacrificing his own honor and future in order to protect the life of his little brother. Disinherited and disgraced, Tobin is offered an opportunity for regaining his good name and, at the same time, saving the people of the Realm:

" 'If I bring down their leader, what will the goblins do?'
" 'If they were human, they'd probably thank you. But goblins are completely mercenary--they never do anything except for payment, or to avoid punishment. Once her hold over them is broken, they'll probably just run off...'
"Tobin drew a deep breath, his gaze wandering over the map, chest, stone, and charm. 'Isn't there any other way?'
"Master Lazur shook his head. 'The barbarians are coming. We have no place to go except north. They have no place to come except here. There is nothing in this world I would not sacrifice to get the Bright Realm behind the goblin wall in time. How high do you weigh the life of a sorceress, one who has killed again and again, against the survival of this whole realm?'
"Tobin's finger traced the river curve that marked his home. He couldn't imagine living in the woodlands, but he'd seen the barbarian armies for himself. Master Lazer was silent, letting him figure it out. Tobin didn't like it, but surely the priest was right. How many knights, men Tobin knew and respected, had already died? If it would end the war, save the whole realm, then the life of one sorceress was a cheap price to pay."

But we know that "sorceress" whom he's being asked to "eliminate" is the young hedgewitch Makenna. She has pursued a relentless outlaw lifestyle since the priests enacted new rules of intolerance that destroyed a long-standing coexistence with the goblins and resulted in the slaughter of Makenna's mother.

What will Tobin, a principled young man, do when he learns what we know about Makenna? How will he reconcile his training that the goblins are merely vermin with the reality of meeting, talking, and seeing the real qualities that goblins possess? Why was Tobin's brother plotting against the Hierarch, the leadership of the Realm? And who is right and who is wrong when climactic changes trigger a widespread crisis, forcing a desperate and starving people to encroach upon the lands of a neighboring civilization?

THE GOBLIN WOOD begs comparison to analogous intercultural/international situations in the real world. It is also a captivating story of scheming and blundering, spells and slapstick, powers and paybacks.

" 'And you're human, whatever else you are.'
" 'Insults,' she snapped, 'will get you nowhere.' "

In addition to the human characters, Hilari Bell does a stellar job of creating the various groups of goblins--the bookeries, the stoners, the charmers, the trackers, and so on. She similarly succeeds at drawing individual goblins. As a whole, these goblins all possess just enough "humanity" to allow us to readily identify with them, while, at the same time, they are different in sufficient ways to prevent them from ever being human.

But why, Tobin ponders, do the goblins follow the girl?

"Was it possible the girl really was a common hedgewitch? If it was, then how had she defeated all the forces that had been sent against her? A small force could defeat a stronger one, but only if the leader of the small force was a very good tactician. To defeat stronger forces again and again, the leader had to be not merely a good tactician, but a truly great one. A general, in fact. Tobin scowled. A seventeen-year-old peasant girl? He couldn't believe it. But he found it no easier to believe that she was a mighty sorceress."

The crown jewel of the story is Makenna, a young woman whose heart is torn between recalling the lessons of tolerance and charity her mother taught by example, and her fierce urge to protect the goblins and seek revenge upon those responsible for her mother's demise. Not an especially quick learner, nor a character whose actions we always agree with, her complexities and contradictions compel us to think, and are prime reasons why THE GOBLIN WOOD is a superb fantasy tale that deserves to be read and discussed.

Richie Partington...