Zombie Tween Tuesday: Zombiekins by Kevin Bolger

3.5 yummy peanut butter sandwich cookies with peanut butter filling!

Cover Love: Well, this summer when I bought this book my 10 year old son Max saw the cover and asked right away if he could read it!

Why I Wanted to Read This Book: I got the book for my boys to read this summer and wanted to read it because Max liked it so much. Synopsis from GoodReads:
Fourth-grader Stanley Nudelman is about as wimpy as they come—he’s cowardly, shy, and spends most of his time hiding from the school bully, Knuckles Bruzkowski! Then Stanley stumbles upon the yard sale of his neighbor, Old Lady Imavitch, where he buys a mysterious stuffed animal. But this isn’t any old toy . . . it’s Zombiekins! He’s a little bit teddy, a little bit bunny, and a whole lotta ZOMBIE! And he’s coming this way!

Stump!—scri-i-i-i-itch . . .

Stump!—scri-i-i-i-itch . . .

Stanley brings Zombiekins to school and unleashes the worst zombie plague in fourth grade history! Can Stanley find the courage to save the day before his teachers notice the class is full of zombies? Or will he soon join the ranks of the snuggily UNDEAD?

I Kept Reading Because: It was funny and I loved the illustrations!

What I Liked (& Didn't): Over all this was a fun book that gets the humor of it's audience. I loved the picture of the girl germs that is shown when Stanley goes into the girls bathroom.

Speaking of pictures...the illustrations were a lot of fun!

There is certainly a gross out factor in this book, but I doubt it is anything that would turn off the scores of little boys reading this book. Especially when it is the "goody-goody," tattletale girl who turns into a zombie first and ends up eating every gross thing in sight.

I liked how even though the kids are zombies they still follow the rules of the school.

And my favorite part...the "antidote" for changing the kids back into regular kids.

I also asked Max what he liked best about the book (he read it very quickly so it was a good level for him--a distractable fourth grader who likes to read, but just has never truly gotten "into" a book). He said it was just fun and he liked all the gross parts also. He liked how Stanley finally figured out how to fix the zombie problem.

What I Would Like To See:
This ended looking like it might be a series, maybe with stuffed animals coming to life and becoming zombie stuffed animals. Nothing like truly giving kids nightmares! I would like to see more of the widow who sold Stanley Zombiekins in the first place. She seemed like she would be an interesting character.

To Sum Up: A very fast moving read with lots of action and humor. Perfect for upper elementary readers and one that I think would be appealing for reluctant readers as well!