Ginny Goblin Is Not Allowed to Open This Box

by David Goodner, Louis Thomas (Illustrator)

Overview

Ginny Goblin is not allowed to open this box, but still she persists in this action-packed, laugh-out-loud debut for fans of Jon Klassen and Mo Willems.

Ginny Goblin Is Not Allowed to Open This Box is the story of . . . well, there’s a box, and Ginny Goblin is not allowed to open it. But oh, how she will try! Ninja suits, catapults, scaly serpents, motorcycles—Ginny will stop at nothing and she’ll make readers giggle and cheer from beginning to end. 

Ginny Goblin has one simple rule to follow: She is not allowed to open this box. Not until dinnertime.  

But Ginny Goblin doesn't like to follow the rules, so nothing will stop her from trying to open this box. Not a tall tower, not a misty mountain, not a frightful forest, and certainly not a murky moat filled with scaly, scary serpents . . .  

But wait! What is in the box? You'll have to open this book to find out! (Don't worry, you're allowed.)

• Perfect for Halloween.
• Don’t miss Ginny Goblin Cannot Have a Monster for a Pet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544764156
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/17/2018
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	657,462
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

David Goodner lives in North Texas. He has an adoring wife and two tolerating cats. He works in a library where he gets to see all the new books before anybody else. When he’s not working or writing stories he likes to play role-playing games, make stuff, and read other people’s books (mostly science fiction and fantasy, but really if you leave a book out where David can find it, he’ll read it).  

Louis Thomas graduated from Gobelins/Paris and Calarts/Los Angeles in 2012. After working in animation studios in California, he moved to France where he lives with his cat Pipo in his art studio between the Pantheon and the Luxembourg Garden. He is the author/illustrator of the book HUG IT OUT. Visit him at louist.blogspot.com and on Instagram @Louis_Thomas_Draw.

Editorial Reviews

04/30/2018
Ginny the goblin is a small, behorned, acid-green creature, and the titular box is large and round, with a gift tag attached to it. The story’s real star, though, is the voice of a sly, magically omniscient narrator. It knows how Ginny is feeling (“But she really wants to know what’s inside”) and what the house rules say (“Not until dinnertime”), and it comes up with ever-sterner security measures (“What if we put the box way up on a shelf?”). What it’s really doing is egging Ginny on as she wields ingenuity, initiative, and flat-out superpowers to get to the box: “She should not, for any reason, catapult little goats at the top of the shelf to knock the box down.” The lighthearted line drawings by Thomas (88 Instruments) bring a mid-’60s cartoon vibe to the pages, a feeling of urbane restraint that reins in Goodner’s feverish visions. Never fear—readers do get to find out what’s in the box (“Now I’m really curious about what’s inside!” the narrator confesses), but the joy is all in the getting there. Ages 4–7. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"A funny read-aloud with (mostly) chuckle-inducing illustrations."—Kirkus "Never fear—readers do get to find out what’s in the box (“Now I’m really curious about what’s inside!” the narrator confesses), but the joy is all in the getting there."—Publishers Weekly "Readers will completely identify with the overly invested narrator.... Hilarious text matches perfectly with the spare yet spot-on illustrations as an adorable and persistent goblin works hard to satisfy her curiosity."—School Library Journal "Curiosity breeds ingenuity in this humorous story about a goblin determined to find out what’s inside a deep, round spangly box. "—Booklist —

From the Publisher

2018-04-16
She may not be allowed to, but the eponymous green-skinned, overalls-clad monster thinks of many magnificent, creative ways to open that box before dinnertime.Ginny's large head sports huge, white eyes with long, dark lashes, a cheerful, two-fanged grin, and two pointy ears—one of which is torn. In other words, she is undoubtedly a nonharmful sort of goblin. After the text makes it clear that Ginny is not allowed to open the box until dinnertime—but "she really wants to know what's inside"—it asks, "What if we put the box way up on a shelf?" Next, readers learn the many (often absurdly hypothetical) things that Ginny Goblin is not allowed to do in order to reach the box, including using a rope and a grappling hook or building a catapult or poking at "scaly, scary serpents" in a "murky moat." Needing to wait until dinnertime strikes a familiar chord with this age group and becomes an appropriate refrain. Lighthearted, cartoony artwork mostly supports the text's tongue-in-cheek tone, leading to laughs about the outlandish suggestions. However, slapstick images of Ginny's body slamming against a stone tower and, later, Ginny clobbering serpents may strike many as unnecessarily violent. Suspense builds when Ginny temporarily turns her attention away from opening the box. The closure of knowing what's inside is supplemented by a punchline well understood by children who have been given boundaries by adults.A funny read-aloud with (mostly) chuckle-inducing illustrations. (Picture book. 4-6)

Kirkus Reviews