The Goblin's Toyshop and other stories | Sunday Observer

The Goblin's Toyshop and other stories

16 June, 2019

The Goblin's Toyshop and other stories by Enid Blyton is a collection of short stories titled The Goblin's Toyshop, The Little Chatterbox, The Peculiar Boots, The Wonderful Doll, The Enchanted Button, The Magic Rubber, The Pixie in the Pond, Too Good to Be True, Porridge Town, Poor Old Lazy-Bones, The Very Strange Pool, The Tale of Chuckle and Ho and The Kite With a Tail.

The Goblin's Toyshop is about a wicked, green-eyed goblin who has recently opened a new toyshop in a fairy village. The pixie children who live in the village visit the new toyshop and are delighted to see beautiful dolls, wooden soldiers, sailor dolls, teddy bears and toy dogs and cats. But the children notice that there are no toy ships, trains, bricks or tops in the shop, and they buy dozens of dolls, teddy bears, soldiers and toy dogs and cats. But something strange happens and the toys disappear at night. The pixies are puzzled as to what has happened to their children’s toys and they go to the toy shop and tell the green-eyed goblin about it.

The goblin tells them that the children can have any toy they like at half the price but even these toys disappear at night. One day a little pixie girl named Fenny who had three new dolls thought that one of her dolls had a cold and put her to bed. Fenny’s other two dolls disappear that night but not the doll who is unwell and in bed.

Fenny’s brother decides to hide in the woods and keep watch and to his surprise finds the toys walking into the goblin’s toyshop. He goes into the goblin’s shop and sees a box with a label “Walking spells for shoes” and guesses the reason why the toys disappear - the wicked green-eyed goblin has put a walking spell into the toys’ shoes which causes them to walk back to him so that he can sell the toys again. The goblin’s treachery is exposed the next day and he is chased out of the village for good and never to return which serves him right for being a fraud.

Reviewed by Hannah William

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