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For some of the most enchanting illustrations ever used in a children's book, flip through IMELDA & THE GOBLIN KING. I wanted to love this book from the front cover, where a little girl perches on a tree branch surrounded by frightened fairies and a goblin lunging across the page. I wanted to read it, then read it over, then sit down all my friends for a story time to read it to them. I wanted this book to make me feel like a child by the fireplace with an enchanted forest in my backyard, and from the front cover, I expected it to. Maybe I shouldn't have.

IMELDA & THE GOBLIN KING is about a little girl, Imelda, who spends every day playing with her fairy friends in the enchanted forest beside her house. But one day, a horde of goblins invade the forest, and the Goblin King decides that he is the new ruler of the forest. The fairies try to make him friendly, but with no luck, so they turn to Imelda to help them punish the Goblin King and save the Fairy Queen, whom he took as prisoner.

"[T]he artwork is nothing less than magical. If you have a very young child, or a child who enjoys picture books for the pictures far more than the story, buy this book. Buy it and flip through it over and over again."

The illustrations look as if they are hand painted. The fairy wings look like they could be feathers or they could be leaves or maybe they could be a mixture of both. The Goblin King's leer reaches his eyes, his green hands are hairy, and even his red cape is torn and jagged. If oral folklore could have illustrations, these would be them. And by the very storybook-esque title, “Imelda and theGoblin King,”that seems to be what Briony May Smith intended. The story begins with a little girl who lives beside a wood, an almost necessary beginning for the perfect fairy tale. But it becomes clear pretty quickly that the author writes childrens' books so she could paint the illustrations to go along with them. This doesn't have to be a bad thing, but in the case of IMELDA & THE GOBLIN KING, the story is so underdeveloped that it actually distracts from the gorgeous images that come with it.

Even in childrens' books, there should be at least a little bit of character and world building, especially since the title suggests a focus on Imelda and the story takes place in an unfamiliar enchanted wood. Instead, the book seems as if it is intended to develop Imelda and the world around her but never actually does it. For example, the fairies invite the Goblin King to their fairy solstice, a “very important celebration,” but there is no elaboration on that. What are the fairies celebrating? Why? Is it an event or a holiday? The only information given is that the fairy solstice is a feast and that the dress code on the invitation calls for “smart casual.” This may be all that's needed for direct plot, but the point of an enchanted world is to immerse the reader in it, especially if the reader is a kid looking for magic. The intimately painted illustrations beckon readers to wrap themselves up in this world, but then the lack of development prevents them from doing that. It's like sitting in a house and smelling a feast, looking at a feast laid out on the table, then not being allowed to eat it. It's frustrating.

The plan to defeat the Goblin King is clever, but the victory lacks emotion. We know nothing about Imelda, other than the fact that she lives beside the forest. The Goblin King takes the Fairy Queen prisoner, and then “the fairies knew there was only one person who could help them.” Imelda. But why? What can she do that the fairies can't? Is she particularly smart? Does she, as a human, have special abilities that the fairies don't have? This issue could have been fixed with one page, even a line or two --- just some mention of a single character trait for the protagonist --- so it's all the more puzzling that the book left it out.

To boil down the issue, it seems that IMELDA & THE GOBLIN KING is just a few pages too short. I did not want to draw from generic images of fairies, goblins and little girls; I wanted to get to know these fairies, these goblins and this specific little girl. I wanted a story at least nearly as vibrant and original as the art it supports. This book did not do that. But the artwork is nothing less than magical. If you have a very young child, or a child who enjoys picture books for the pictures far more than the story, buy this book. Buy it and flip through it over and over again.

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