The Princess and the Goblin

Young Princess Irene, sent away to the country to be raised in a place nestled into the side of a mountain that's half farmhouse and half castle, has stumbled into a conspiracy -- of Goblins! Really, Goblins! Their evil plot threatens the king and his palace and of course Irene and her friend and her great-great-grandmother (who is a witch, just for good measure). This book has been famous fun for generations, and you ought to come see why. Highly recommended. Jeffrey Holdaway, in the New Zealand Art Monthly, said that both books start out as "normal fairytales but slowly become stranger", and that they contain layers of symbolism similar to that of Lewis Carroll's work.