I’m pleased as punch to be today’s stop on the Ben Hatke Beastiary of Lost Creatures blog tour (and you know I almost never do blog tours so this book has gotta be good.  Today Ben’s gonna highlight a creature for us himself and I’m gonna sit back and take it easy.

Enjoy!

Ben Hatke’s Houseguest Beast of the Day: Goblins

No two goblins are alike. These wild gregarious beings appear most often as a collection of miscellaneous unwanted parts from other creatures and, indeed, perhaps that’s where goblins come from. They chatter constantly with each other, though to outsiders their language sounds like garbled nonsense. They eat all the time, and conduct themselves as if they are in a never ending circus parade.

Having goblins in your house can be fun at first, but after about ten minutes their presence tips everything toward chaos. You start to wonder where all your food went and why all your furniture has started shuffling around on its own.

Goblins also have the disconcerting ability to hide in impossibly small spaces. A goblin the size of a small child, for instance, could leap suddenly out of a teapot. So you see, goblins are among the least domestic of creatures and, as houseguests, a few goblins go a very long way.

PS: for goodness sake, whatever you do, don’t ever, ever let a goblin borrow your car! Even if they say they are just going to the store.

A Note from Ben: Gotta love goblins. When I was growing up, my dad helped in restoring the house/museum of Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley, who seemed to have an affinity for these odd creatures. See: Little Orphan Annie and Nine Little Goblins. I was pretty small when we visited that house, but you could definitely imagine goblins lurking about.

Thanks, Ben!  And for those of you interested you check out the rest of the blog tour here: http://mackidsbooks.com/ben-hatkes-bestiary-of-lost-creatures.  And be sure to check out Ben’s first foray into picture bookdom when you have half a moment to do so.  Good stuff.