Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for this at

A cute but predictable whimsical story. Narrator was good and put inflictions on the right words

I was unable to get audio books to work on Netgalley and thus never listened to this before it was archived.

This is a delightful story for elementary and middle-grade kids. If your child is always searching for a hidden doorway in the wardrobe or looking for white rabbits to follow, then this is the perfect book.

Eleven-year-old Sarah moves with her family from New York City to rural Hadley, Connecticut. She's eager to explore her new home and meet new friends, but she never expected to befriend an old garden gnome. Readers join Sarah as she is drawn into a secret world under our feet. Sarah uses her instincts to calm old rivalries and help the underworld elves, gnomes, and more join her in the upperworld.

As an adult I loved this story - it was very entertaining and well-written. The audiobook was easy to follow and well-narrated. If you are taking a road trip and looking for something the whole family will enjoy, then definitely get this book.

My review will be published at Girl Who Reads on Sunday - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2023/12/2-audiobooks-for-young-readers.html

This was a really fun and enjoyable story. Definitely reminiscent of Alice In Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz combined.

Sarah, a bright, curious and highly imaginative 11 year old girl, has just moved from busy Manhattan to the quiet countryside in rural Hadley, Connecticut.

She loves books, stories, adventures and exploring.

So, when exploring the new house and the garden outside, she discovers what appears to be a gnome statue... which soon comes to life!

From there on, a big adventure takes places, travelling to the Gnome world and settling old rivalries between gnomes and trolls, and even finding a few surprises along the way.

It was cute, fast paced and I loved all the sound effects. The narrator also did a great job with all the voices and bringing the story to life.

I'd recommend this for any child (or adult!) who just loves a quick and fun adventure between our world and a fantastical new world.

Charming children's book is made exciting through great audio narration with sound effects included. The book does start off slowly, it took a while to be drawn into the story.

While I am not the target audience for this book I enjoyed this whimsical story for what it was. It is a wonderful children's book which reminds me of many of the types of books I used to read as a child. There is a real sense of fun, adventure and exploration. I'm sure this would be a hit for almost any young reader.

When Sarah moves from New York to Connecticut, the last thing she expected to do was befriend a little garden gnome. The fun is just beginning as she follows the gnome to a secret world that brings on a bigger adventure than she could have ever dreamed of.
Thank you Netgalley, Jeff Dinardo and One Elm Books for the opportunity to read and review this book. This book is geared for children around the the ages of 8 and up. I received the audio version of this book. The narrator really did a great job and the sound affects seemed to bring the story to life. This was a really cute and fun book to read. It was quick and easy and really seemed to be the perfect length. Even though this book is more for kids, I really enjoyed reading it. I rate this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cute yet predictable story about a girl who uses very human skills to solve a conflict between warring creatures in another world.

Sarah just moved to a small neighborhood and she's having a hard time making friends as the new girl. One day, she stumbles across a gnome while helping her father in the garden and has been fascinated by it since then. I ordered the audiobook for myself because it was such a fun middle grade book to listen to! I loved the friendship formed and the trip to the mystical land.

A long overdue review.
A special thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

I listened to this book with my 10year old, Since she is the target audience, this is really a review from both of us.

She really enjoyed the story and all of the magical creatures. She didn’t lose interest and looked forward to each installment. Lovers of fantasy tales will “dig this book” she said. As a parent I found the lessons valuable as well.

Our one complaint was the narrator. We found some of the voices she made to be grating and annoying at times. It didn’t ruin the story for us, but was definitely distracting.

We would recommend the printed version before the audiobook.

Unfortunately the audiobook expired before I could finish it. I will try and see if I can get this from the library.

This was the most magical book ever! It was a fantastic read a nd I think it will make a great socking stuffer for the little ones who love the magical world of gnomes. As an adult, I found the story enthralling and it took me back to my childhood and the way that I got wrapped up in those books.

This was a cute book, not just for children, but for older people as well. I enjoyed the narrator and the main character and the book was easy to understand.

When eleven-year-old Sarah is transplanted from New York City to rural Connecticut, she has no idea how she will survive. Never could she have imagined that a garden gnome come to life would lead her to an underground adventure to save the entire gnome race.

I listened to the audiobook version of this story and absolutely loved the addition of sound effects to enhance the story. Looking at the printed version, I saw the addition of illustrations with the text as well. I thought these nice additions.

However, while my seven-year-old daughter found this story enjoyable, I had a difficult time getting into the story. Although it is geared toward a younger audience, I was frustrated by the overuse of dialogue tags and, at least in the second half of the story, the near absent use of pronouns, leading to names being repeated many times in a short period. An example of this can be seen in the kindle sample:

"Sarah was just turning to leave when something caught her eye. It looked like a little gray shoe that was sticking out from under an overturned planter. Sarah carefully lifted the planter and laid it aside. The shoe was part of a statue. It looked like a little elf, or gnome, made out of stone. He was about three feet tall and dressed in a suit, and on his head was a pointed hat. Sarah had seen these in her mother's books."

There were also some places throughout the book where it felt like too much background information was being given. I wasn't always sure how it was relevant to the story and was slightly distracting.

Overall, however, I did think this an enjoyable story to read with my younger children. The audiobook was well narrated and my children within the target audience seemed to enjoy it.




This review is available on Amazon & Goodreads and will be published on my blog in September. (Note: the links to amazon and my blog are currently unavailable)

What a fun middle grade fantasy listen! I thoroughly enjoyed this adventure story narrated by eleven year old Sarah as she discovers a thoroughly engaging fantasy world. After listening to the audiobook from NetGalley for myself I ordered a copy of this book to share with my nephew. Thank you to the author and publisher for sharing this book with me.

I think this is a cute story overall, but it meanders for a long time and the pacing makes the events of this story very boring. The introduction was so slow that I often put this down in search for something else because I didn't think a girl looking in a shed for an hour was interesting. I'm not a fan of the dialogue either and while I think this is geared for a young audience, who might not have as big of a problem with it, it felt clunky and unnatural, especially given the characters' history with each other.

A lovely read! I enjoyed the story. It was like Alice in Wonderland where the heroine went into a rabbit hole. Sarah went down a door and help her new "friend" to save the gnomes. I love the narrator and how the story goes, although the story pacing is a bit slow at some point. But overall, I like it!

This book was well written and since I listened to it, easy to understand. As an adult I love seeing new books that children can really get into. A new world or a journey and this book had both. Great job.

This is a Fantasy Middle Grade, and I listen to the audiobook. I really enjoyed this book. I have already order a copy of this book for my daughter. I love the messages in this story, and the story is to cute and fun to read/listen to. This story is told by Sarah a 11 year old girl who is pulled into a secret world Gnome world. I loved the Gnome world. I loved all the characters in this book. I was kindly provided an e-audiobook of this book by the publisher or author (Jeff Dinardo) via NetGalley, so I can give honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

This one is a cute story for children that doesn’t translate well for adult readers that like to read children’s books, sadly. The world is very interesting and I wish there was more about it. The characters are sympathetic and cute.

The audio version had some sounds to go along with the story (like knocking at doors or turning a key) which were well done but that I felt didn’t had much to this kind of story.

There’s not much else to say about it since it is a short read.