Zombie in Love

June 20, 2011
Zombies have filtered down from YA to middle readers, and now there's a picture book for the youngest zombie fans. Campbell, a comics and video game artist, gives Mortimer the zombie just the right degree of repellant charmâhe has pet worms who play cards, a headstone for a computer monitor, and a goggle-eyed dog who gnaws on a hand that may or may not be real. Mortimer's gifts for girls fall flat (a still-beating heart, a ring on a disembodied finger), and he fears he won't find a date for Cupid's Ball. Nobody answers his personal ad, written to the tune of Rupert Holmes's "Escape" ("If you like taking walks in the graveyard/ and falling down in the rain"); it might be his smile, to which Campbell devotes a closeupâgreenish, with fuzzy peg teeth. After rejections that will make lovelorn readers flinch, Mildred the girl zombie shows up at last, and she's "drop-dead gorgeous." DiPucchio (The Sandwich Swap) exchanges zombie horror for romantic agony; instead of fearing him, the thin-skinned will suffer right along with hapless Mortimer. Ages 4â8.

August 1, 2011

Zombies are all the rage with teens, and stories of lovelorn adolescent lads trying to find the perfect girl in time for the big dance abound. This quest for companionship, however, is aimed at a decidedly younger crowd.

DiPucchio and Campbell pair their considerable talents to tell the tale of poor Mortimer, a zombie looking for love in all the wrong places. At the gym, others freak out when his arm breaks off while lifting weights. While taking dance lessons, his only partner is an uncooperative skeleton. But then he decides to place a personal ad in the newspaper: "If you like taking walks in the graveyard / and falling down in the rain. / If you're not into cooking, / if you have half a brain. / ...I'm dying to meet you!" Mortimer goes to the ball with high hopes, but the night drags on as his attentions are repeatedly spurned. Just as he is about to leave he hears a crash. "There on the floor was a girl...and she was drop-dead gorgeous." Text loaded with humorous understatement and Campbell's skillfully detailed watercolors in a palette of decay (think watery reds, putrid grays and sickly greens) are both clever and delightfully gross. When Mortimer offers his heart to a girl, the undead gent presents his actual organ.

Probably best suited for sharing with primary graders, who will squirm between fits of laughter. (Picture book. 6-8)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 1, 2011

Gr 1-3-Mortimer the zombie is lonely and desperately wants a sweetheart, but every time he reaches out to a human girl, disaster strikes. The wormy chocolates disgust, the real heart terrifies, and the ring on a severed finger scares. He just doesn't seem to have that devil-may-care romantic dash. He places a personal ad, and, on the night of the Cupid's Ball, he waits and waits for the right girl to arrive. Finally, she does and makes a disastrous entrance, knocking over the punch bowl. She smiles at him with the same Frankensteinlike teeth he has and his heart melts. This silly story features loads of sight gags that sharp-eyed children will enjoy. When the zombie is working out and his arm falls off, chuckles are guaranteed. The color cartoon illustrations are over-the-top, which makes the comic effects even more obvious. This giggler will grab those children who like their zombies funny.-Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.