Elliot and the Goblin War (Underworld Chronicles #1) by Jennifer A. Nielsen

While I realize that it is no longer Wednesday, and therefore not my turn to review a book, I just had to jump in here (since I missed yesterday!)  Yesterday I was planning on reviewing  Fortune's Folly by Deva Fagen.  It's a good book.  I really liked it.  It's not fabulous or perfect, but it was a good book.

But I'm glad I waited until this morning because Oh. My. Goodness.  I loved this book!  I finished it up about three o'clock this morning and it was worth being up that late!


This is what the back cover has to say:

Warning!  As of today, there are only 7 children who have ever read this book and lived to tell about it.  95 children successfully read the first chapter, but upon beginning chapter 2, they started blabbering in some language known only as "Flibberish".  38 children made it halfway through this wretched book before they began sucking their thumbs through their noses.

If you're very brave, perhaps you are willing to take your chances.  Be sure that you have told your family who gets your favorite toys if you do not survive this book.  Read it now, if you dare.  But don't say you haven't been warned, for this is the story that unfolds the mysteries of the Underworld.

This is what I have to say!

I loved this book!  The whole thing was written just like the back cover.  A little funny, a little sarcastic, a whole lot of fun!  The cover of this book is amazing.  Beautiful (if goblins can be beautiful!)    (I know, I know...I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.  I don't.  Always.  Well, maybe...more than I should!)  And the illustrations throughout the book are so nice!

Elliot comes from an odd family.  He has an older brother Reed that is 16 and works at the Quack Shack (selling duck burgers...and he supplements his family's meager food supply by bringing home leftover pickle relish)  Elliot has an older sister named Wendy who is 15.  She is a terrible cook, but she tricks people into coming in for dinner by making yummy-smelling desserts.  And Elliot has six-year-old twin brothers named Kyle and Cole.  They are hilarious!  Always getting into trouble (they were suspended from kindergarten  in their first week for putting a water snake in the boys' bathroom toilet)  So fun to read!

The story starts when Elliot (unknowingly) saves a Brownie named Patches from three goblins on Halloween.  But, because it was Halloween, he didn't realize that they were real.  Three years later, when the Queen of the Brownies dies, Patches' dad remembers how brave Elliot was and names him as her successor.

What happens next was charming!  With the help of the Brownies they try to figure out a way to defeat the Goblins.  It is infused with humor, literally dripping with it.  I wanted to find a passage to put here for an example, but it was too hard to choose.  Every page is delightful!  It would be a great read-aloud book I think!  I plan to introduce it to my girls as soon as they get home from school.  THEN I'm going to the library to pick up the next book in the series, Elliot and the Pixie Plot!


I gave it an enthusiastic 5 stars!  Yes, it's that good!