Ann Greenleaf

The Goblins Did It!
By Ann Garrison Greenleaf (1993)

I liked The Goblins Did It! by Ann Garrison Greenleaf for three reasons. First, I liked the dialogue in the book. Specifically, the characters come alive through the dialogue. In addition, the dialogue sounds like natural speech. Also, the dialogue revealed a conflict (“Goblins!”), which caused the children to react (“Run for it, Natalie!”). Altogether, dialogue is a great crafting tool, and Greenleaf is successful at incorporating it into her story. The second thing I liked were the illustrations in the book. Specifically, at first, the photos do not fill the entire page, but as the story reaches its climax, the photos get bigger, and eventually fill the entire page. Moreover, the photos are dark, which emphasizes the spookiness of Halloween. Lastly, I liked how Greenleaf challenges the label that goblins are scary by explaining that they just wanted to play. Thus, after reading this book, children may change their opinions about goblins, and think they are nice. Overall, the “big idea” of The Goblins Did It! is to signify that one’s first impression of a person or in this case a goblin is not always accurate. Although the goblins were portrayed as scary, they turned out to be friendly.… (mehr)