Reading: THE ODDMIRE, BOOK 1: CHANGELING - William Ritter

After a massive reading slump of nearly two years, in late 2014 I happened across William Ritter's Jackaby - which would end up my favorite read of the year even before spawning three sequels ... so to say the least this reader was eager to get his hands on the first book of Ritter's new fantasy series for middle-grade readers. Changeling opens with the nicest, perhaps most inept goblin ever, Kull, as he slips into a home in the middle of the night to swap out a newborn baby. See, the magic of the surrounding Wild Wood, which Kull and his fellow goblins (and many other creatures) call home, is dying out, but good fortune has brought a changeling to the goblins - a baby that can transform itself into a duplicate of any human baby, so that Kull can steal the human baby and give it to the faeries to raise, securing some magic restoration for the goblins. But when Kull gets distracted in the dark and suddenly finds two identical human babies lying in the cradle in front of him, he's forced to run away empty-handed into the night upon hearing the mother approaching, leaving Annie Burton - after a mild freakout - left to raise both boys as her own, regardless of the town gossip saying one of them is a goblin in disguise. Flash-forward almost thirteen years later and twins Cole and Tinn are irascible pre-teens of their own, living a normal life getting into typical boyhood trouble ... neither of them even knowing if the old tales are true (or which of them is the goblin), even as Kull watches hidden from nearby. Because this time, the goblin has no room for error; if he doesn't get his changeling back in time, it could mean the end of the entire goblin horde for good. Problem? Kull doesn't know which of the very human-looking boys is the precious changeling, either! Ritter's strength as a writer has always been in creating believable, sympathetic characters and infusing even the darkest situations with humor; he did it brilliantly for Jackaby, for older readers, and here gives twins Cole and Tinn their own distinctive voices and personalities as well as we follow their journey into the Wild Wood as they search for answers while going back and forth in our own heads wondering who is the human child and who is the changeling. As if this weren't enough, what no one knows is that with all the creatures they could potentially cross paths with in the Wild Word, beyond the Oddmire, its The Thing who sits in wait for the boys. And the closer they get, the hungrier it gets. Thrilling, complex, mysterious, funny, and even worthy of a tear or two by The End, The Oddmire, Book 1: Changeling brilliantly opens this suspenseful new middle-grade series by a terrific writer for young people.  4.5/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.