Goblin Market is a delightfully imaginative story about the unbreakable bond between two sisters--one who unknowingly falls in love with a goblin, and the other who is driven to save her.
Sisters Lizzie and Minka are extremely close despite being very different: vivacious and outgoing Minka enjoys going into town; quiet and introspective Lizzie, for whom "each sound [is] a color," prefers to stay home. One day, when Minka comes home from the market, Lizzie notices that her words are "a little brighter than usual"--Minka met "the handsomest boy" who gave her a "gorgeous" piece of fruit. The next week Minka gives a lock of hair to the boy, Emil, then develops a fever. By evening, her hair turns gray and falls out.
Lizzie goes to town accompanied by steadfast, cheerful neighbor Jakob, to confront Emil. But Jakob can't see Minka's suitor, and Lizzie notices flickers of "something quite different standing in his place." Lizzie and Jakob realize that Emil is a zdusze, a forest goblin, and when Minka disappears, the children plunge into the dark Wood to save her. Ultimately, it's only when Lizzie figures out what she has, and the zdusze does not, that she can save her sister.
Diane Zahler (Baker's Magic) spins a terrifically timeless upper-middle-grade story of sisterly love, goblin magic and overstepped boundaries, inspired by Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market." Zahler's lush language describes a fully realized fairy tale world, wherein Lizzie and Minka's cozy cottage at the edge of the Wood sets off the creepy, menacing realm of the goblins. Share this book with anyone who loves their stories located in far-off lands potentially inhabited by monsters. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author