WAIT FOR IT! Ginny Goblin Is Not Allowed To Open This Box by David Goodner

GINNY GOBLIN IS NOT ALLOWED TO OPEN THIS BOX.

NOT UNTIL DINNERTIME.

The box is s-o-o nifty. It's perfectly round, it's sorta pinkish, and it has a tag on it. What's not to like?

But what's in it?

Ginny's just itching to get her little green hands on that box.. But Mom and Dad just stand there, watching... watching... and thinking....

"What if we put the box way up?"

Now the box is way up on a high shelf... and Ginny is green with curiosity. What if she pushed that chair....

Stop! That's not allowed. She's got to wait ALL day--till dinnertime.

To make sure she waits, the box goes on a shelf in a locked room. HA! A locked door never stopped a ninja with a grappling hook with a rope to climb....

No. Parents do that.

But Ginny doesn't give up. There are WAYS.... A catapult--YES! But her best design poops out on Ginny when she aims herself at the castle tower where Mom and Dad have put the cake. SMACK!

But Ginny has plenty more plans. She can chop down the forest, build a battering ram to breach the gates, and craft a ramp to drive her scooter to the top of the tower, where....

Whooops! What goes up can come down--fast! And hard!

Ginny Goblin isn't allowed to just walk away, is she?

Can she do that?

Yes, she can, in David Goodner's forthcoming Ginny Goblin Is Not Allowed to Open This Box (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018).

If I don't get to find out what's in that box, I'm going to EXPLODE.

By this time, even Ginny the Goblin's sly narrator is dying to see what's in that box, while Ginny plays it cool, sweetly washing up for dinner without being told.

Ginny is a cute little goblin with two fangs, tiny horns, and one raggedy pointy ear, one who barely endures the suspense until it's time to open that mystery box. By the time that Ginny finally eats all her peas to earn the right to open that box, nobody is going to be too surprised by what she finds what's inside. But the fun is in getting to that first bite of birthday cake, in this quirky little critter tale of a tot who'll do a lot to collect her cake, and nobody goes home without having had a good time. Charming comic pictures by illustrator Louis Thomas capture the fun of this story of anticipation and gratification delayed.

Cravin' a Kraken? Ginny Goblin Cannot Have A Monster for A Pet by David Goodner

Ginny Goblin wants a goat. Several goats, actually.

Her parents are not pleased.

Goats are kind of stinky, and it's a lot of work to take care of them.

Maybe if we can help Ginny Goblin find a pet, she'll stop trying to herd goats through the house.

Ginny's on it in a nano-second, with a bear collar, a huge net, and, uh, an armored tank? Not exactly what her parents have in mind.

Maybe a trip to the beach will inspire her to adopt a teeny-tiny tropical fish or may hap a lovable and low-maintenance hermit crab?

But no. Ginny goes overboard for an aquatic pet. She commandeers a mini-sub on a mission to capture the dreaded tentacled Kraken.

No way, Ginny! Perhaps in those daisy-covered hills she'll fall for a furry little bunny?

Hey! Wait! Ginny! Don't go down in that dank, dark cave and wake up a dragon!

Dragons eat cows in a single bite. Dragons are even crankier than krakens!

Her parents drag Ginny out of the cave just in time to avoid being barbequed by dragon breath and take her into the woods, hoping that she'll become enamored of a small-ish bird. But Ginny gets busy building a trap.

She should not catch a basilisk in her trap.

Basilisks turn everything they look at into stone, and they won't use the litter box.

What's with this penchant for mythical beasts? But now Ginny boards a rocket ship to adopt a space alien! Better abort that mission!

But wait! what's that she's cuddling in her arms? A baby goat? Whew!

Goats don't wrap people in tentacles, or fry the neighbors with fiery breath, or even turn them into marble monuments!

Goats even eat all the weeds in the yard.

A baby goat is not a monster.

Now if they can just keep Ginny Goblin from taking her goat to bed, in David Goodner's tale of a critter-loving tot, Ginny Goblin Cannot Have a Monster for a Pet (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019). Picking a (suitable) pet is an important part of childhood, and Ginny's penchant for unsuitable pets makes for a jolly "can I keep him" story for preschoolers and especially for savvy primary graders whose mania for monsters extends to the folkloric.

In the artwork of illustrator Louis Thomas, Ginnie Goblin is a cutie, with her greenish skin and little red overalls, endearing in her enthusiasm for exotic creatures. Goodner's and Thomas's first book together is Ginny Goblin Is Not Allowed to Open This Box. (see my 2018 review here)