GOBLIN MONDAY

A winter break trip with new friends ends in a life-or-death struggle with angry goblins.

Having recently moved from Key West, Florida, to Philadelphia, Mario Galagos has never experienced snow. He’s excited to accompany his new neighbors and friends, siblings Todd and Jewel Simms, on a visit to see their grandparents in snowy Vermont, even though he doesn’t know them all that well yet. MomMom and Grampa Tweety turn out to be strange but fascinating; MomMom cooks and knits tiny green outfits, while Grampa Tweety is a bird-loving fantasy author full of stories about imps, gremlins, and goblins. Their home is as odd as they are, with a floor-to-ceiling birdcage and an array of birds, both inside and out. The longer Mario spends with the family, however, the more wrong things seem. A goblin encounter confirms his suspicions that this place is dangerous, and he’ll be lucky to escape it alive. This series entry zips along quickly and will be a particularly good fit for reluctant readers. Short chapters that end with leading questions or bits of foreshadowing propel readers through an evenly spaced narrative with plenty of surprises. Characters’ ethnicities are not specified.

Another entertaining middle-grade creep-fest from Stine.