They’ll encounter not just goblins, but also a hinkypunk (a grieving will-o’-the-wisp with a candle in his beard), the Witch of the Wood, and a feral little shape-shifting girl their own age. Thus begins Tinn and Cole’s quest through the Wild Wood, past the Oddmire, and beyond the Deep Dark. Neither boy knows who the real changeling actually is, and though they’re mischievous and irreverent, they each want what’s best for one another.

But one day the boys receive a mysterious letter explaining that if the changeling child doesn’t join the goblin horde, all the magical creatures will die. Now, years later, they’re inseparable, and both drive their mother to distraction, playing in the quarry and swapping the salt for the sugar. Though everyone knows one of the babies must be a changeling, their mother insisted on raising Tinn and Cole as twins. Thirteen years ago, a goblin out of the Wild Wood brought a doppelgänger to exchange for a human infant-then had to dash away to escape detection, leaving both infant and changeling behind. In The Oddmire 1: Changeling, the New York Times bestselling author of the Jackaby series brings to life a bold new adventure, the first in a series about monsters, magic, and mayhem.A human boy and a goblin changeling are raised as brothers. 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. The first book in an action-packed fantasy adventure series featuring witches, shape-shifters, and other creatures of fairytale and folklore, including two brothers-one human and one a goblin changeling-on a life-changing quest into the Oddmire.

Changeling by william ritter