He could have been made of fire and she would not have let him go.Īfter all, this journey isn’t just about changelings and goblin-folk and magic more than anything, Changeling is about family - blood-bound, or not - and the lengths we will go to when we want to keep our loved ones safe. It’s such a fascinating and pulling story from its barest bones, anyways, because from the very start, you know you’re rooting for them despite the fact that their intended quest doesn’t seem like it could possibly end in anything short of tears. These characters are so precious and laugh-out-loud funny, but their quest is one wrought with endless suspense because you can’t help but love them and want them to succeed. We’re twenty feet from where we hang out every day, and I am literally holding a chart.” I cannot even begin to tell you how flawlessly William Ritter’s Changeling checks every last one of those boxes for me! “We’re in the Wild Wood,” he whispered. I don’t reach for middle grade fantasy terribly often because I tend to be picky, but when I do, I’m looking for specific things: a whimsical world I can escape in, a sense of humor that can make me smile (or better yet, laugh out loud), and characters I can genuinely love and care for. “Once upon a time, there was a child whom the goblins came to steal, and once upon a time, there was a child whom the goblins left behind…” The boys must leave behind their sleepy town of Endsborough and risk their lives in the Wild Wood, crossing the perilous Oddmire swamp and journeying through the Deep Dark to reach the goblin horde and discover who they truly are.

Then when they are twelve years old, a mysterious message arrives, calling the brothers to be heroes and protectors of magic. Tinn and Cole are raised as human twins, neither knowing what secrets may be buried deep inside one of them. Not knowing which to bring back, he leaves both babies behind. Too perfectly: Kull cannot tell them apart. By the time he turns back, the changeling has already perfectly mimicked the human child. After laying the changeling in a human infant’s crib, the goblin Kull is briefly distracted from his task. But when the fateful night arrives to trade a human baby for a goblin one, something goes terribly wrong. To renew it, goblins must perform an ancient ritual involving the rarest of their kind-a newborn changeling.

Changeling by william ritter