The Goblin and The Girl - Blog Tour

Neil Irani - Author

For today's stop on the blog tour we asked Neil for something about his writing and thinking behind The Goblin and the Girl, which we have already reviewed.

The Goblin and the Girl is about a girl who lacks confidence. This is new writing territory for me as I've always written more in general for boys as I am used to running my ideas past my son and his friends!

I find that most books in the book shops/online are very high on brightness, sometimes good at humour, and generally quite lacking in getting a useful message across to the child to whom the book is being read.

I try to write stories with messages, hopefully The Goblin and the Girl will do this.

Finding the right illustrator for this was difficult. After trying various agencies who'd I'd previously met at the Bologna International Children's Book Fair, I switched to Google and found a number of excellent recent graduates who were hungry for good work and full of ideas and feedback themselves.

It's been an exciting journey writing this book.

The follow up is well under way and is called "The Ogre and the Girl" - and is about an external demon rather than an internal one!

Thank you for that Neil, I must  admit to a couple of surprises in there but also feel that the message The Goblin and The Girl carries is a very important one for everyone of us.

The Goblin and the Girl by Neil Irani

The Power Of The Mirror
Review by The Mole

The Girl has a mirror which whenever she looks in it all she sees is a goblin. Frightened that other people will see the goblin too she hides her face behind a large hat and avoids people until one day when The Boy talks to her in a friendly way and she can't hide from him.

One thing that surprised me in this book is that "The Girl" and "The Boy" don't have names. It's something that I hadn't noticed until I re-read it and the more I think about it the more relevant this idea actually is.

While the pictures (by Park Yun) are powerful they also manage to catch the mood very well of The Girl as the story progresses.

My only concern is if a child on their own could catch the true understanding of the important subject that this book covers, so I feel that at some point it needs to be shared and talked about. Self-esteem. Perhaps one of the earliest character developments that can shape a person for many years. The book is written such that if it is shared with a child and discussed it can be used to show that 'the quiet child in the class' should be talked to and treated kindly even if not actually befriended by everyone or it can be used to show a shy child that they don't look like a goblin and are perfectly normal and that they can talk and play with other children.

A beautifully drawn and well scripted book for sharing and discussing.

Publisher - Maverick Books
Genre - Children's Early Reader

Buy The Goblin and the Girl from Amazon