Review: A Witty and Engaging Elementary/Early Middle Grade Read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 19, 2013
There are lots of middle grade zombie humor books out there. Not to be a wiseguy about it, some of them seem just to be in the standard fart/booger style, but with an extra helping of zombie grossness. Not so this book.There is, of course, zombie grossness. But, our hero, Tommy Dismoldy, is a level headed sixth grader with a deadpan delivery. He's not antic or frantic; he just deals with the fact that he's stuck with a zombie hiding in his attic. His dry and bemused delivery makes the whole zombie premise work. (Example: When zombie police break into his bedroom he observes that "[i]f they tracked mud up the stairs, my Mom will make them wish they'd never died." I just think that's hip, funny and pretty subtle for a zombie tale. And the whole book is loaded with similar one-liners and throwaways.) In the same vein, Carrion is a pretty good zombie. He's very polite and a bit formal in a zombie dignity sort of way. Again, this restraint makes his actions and comments funnier than they would be if everything was written in a zany or over-the-top sort of way.So, you get a decent hero, a zippy and funny tale, and a writer with a light touch and subtle sense of humor. It's not wacka-wacka funny, but it's so good humored and well constructed that I could see this being a very satisfying read for a late elementary/early middle grade reader.