PIGEONS ARE THE WORST!

Pigeons invade this early-reader debut for Gilbert the Goblin, who has racked up quite a few starring roles in Willan’s picture books.

“You know, we goblins LOVE pizza,” confides narrator Gilbert, a saucer-eyed, mint-green goblin with Yoda ears. “But we also like saving a buck or two. So when I found myself down to my last slice, I had an idea. Why not use my goblin magic to create…A DUPLICATING SPELL!” Unfortunately, the potion that Gilbert creates drips onto a pigeon who has wandered over to peck at the pizza, and before long, pigeons are everywhere. For an early-reader title, the story contains a surprisingly large number of intermediate-level vocabulary words (“I used my patent-pending potion-pouring pipeline…with purple plastic plungers”), but Willan gives his target audience every incentive to plow ahead: a funny premise, a clever ending, a sympathetic protagonist (Gilbert is more of a grouch in Willan’s picture books), alliteration, and occasional rhymes (“I had pigeons in my pots and pigeons in my plants. And pigeons in my previously pigeon-less pants”). Most importantly, there’s sleek cartoony art capturing the pigeons’ not-so-hostile takeover. The bird depicted running around with a pair of pants on its head—comedy gold for any age group—may well deserve the prize for kid lit’s second funniest pigeon.

A real knee-slapper; this goblin is a welcome addition to the early-reader scene.