Philip Reeve’s Goblins Vs Dwarves is a funny fantasy adventure for 9 year olds about a goblin, a would-be hero and a mine full of very rude dwarves.<\/p>\n
Henwyn is a young human who fancies himself an adventurer. His best friend Skarper is a goblin (spindly, foxy-faced, with a ginger tuft on the end of his tail). Humans and goblins aren’t supposed to be friends at all.<\/p>\n
They live at Clovenstone, a huge ruined fortress full of goblins, cheese-making and trouble. Out exploring the mountains one day, Henwyn falls straight through the ground and lands in a tunnel. Then something comes round the corner wearing lanterns. It’s a giant mole.<\/p>\n
The tunnels belong to dwarves, and they aren’t friendly. To them Henwyn is a clumsy “bigling” and Skarper is even worse. Soon it turns out what they really want is the lake of slowsilver deep under Clovenstone. That’s where every goblin hatches from.<\/p>\n
Their friend Princess Ned would much rather talk than fight. So off they all go to say hello nicely, with a goblin blowing a trumpet that sounds exactly like a fart. It doesn’t go well!<\/p>\n
This book is properly funny. Skarper eats both of Henwyn’s pies while his friend is stuck down a hole. One of the baby goblins belts its teacher with a log the second it hatches. There’s even a contest on the battlements that you’ll have to discover for yourself (let’s just say it isn’t rain).<\/p>\n
Underneath the silliness there’s a proper adventure. Henwyn thinks life should work like the old hero stories, and Skarper, who is very good at running away, isn’t so sure. There’s also a dwarf girl called Etty, who’s sent to listen in on them and seems a lot less certain about all this than the grown-ups.<\/p>\n
If your reader likes their dungeons and dark forces served with toilet jokes, this is probably going to be a hit. Who doesn’t love a goblin who’d rather have a pie than a fight?<\/p>\n
It follows straight on from Goblins, the first book about Skarper and Henwyn, so start there if you can. It’s in the library too.<\/p>\n
If they want more castles with secret tunnels underneath, try Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville. William has spent years hunting for hidden passages in Toad-in-a-Cage Castle, and one of them takes him five hundred steps down towards the dungeons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Philip Reeve’s Goblins Vs Dwarves is a funny fantasy adventure for 9 year olds about a goblin, a would-be hero and a mine full of very rude dwarves. Henwyn is a young human who fancies himself an adventurer. His best friend Skarper is a goblin (spindly, foxy-faced, with a ginger tuft on the end of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12708,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":7527,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Goblins in the Castle","lr_seo_hook":"Dwarves with giant moles plan to drain the lake where goblins hatch."},"book_tag":[22],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[798],"class_list":["post-7529","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-mystery-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-philip-reeve"],"yoast_title":"Goblins vs Dwarves by Philip Reeve | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Dwarves with giant moles plan to drain the lake where goblins hatch. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n