I'm Undead and Hungry!

October 1, 2014
Grades K-3 Many young kids may need a primer to understand references to classic monsters that have been fully co-opted into pop culture. Enter the Monster Buddies series, appropriate for any age. This volume introduces Roscoe, a cute little blue-skinned zombie, who thinks that being undead is aces: That's right! I'm dead. And I'm alive. How cool is that? Through a series of comic tableaux, illustrated with funny, pop-eyed fervor by Buccheri, Roscoe explains how zombies are spawned via virus or mad scientist, prefer people as food (brains even more so), and bite the living to create more zombies. Mostly, though, they just moan and groan. The final few pages make brief, historic connections (bare bones, so to speak), mentioning zombie history in Haiti, China, and Europe.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)