Zombies!

April 1, 2012

Gr 3-5-Hair-raising covers (a zombie lunging from its coffin, a drooling werewolf menacing a cowering girl) and thick line artwork give these graphic-novel-style books a pulpy flavor that will appeal to fans of comics. Unfortunately, stilted dialogue and captions that repeat what the images have already established give the narratives an awkward feel. Mummies! and Witches! respectively present Howard Carter's unearthing of King Tut's tomb and witch trials as historical events, emphasizing that the supposed supernatural happenings-such as the reports of witchcraft-were mere stories. However, the other volumes are not as clear in establishing the narratives as folklore rather than objective truth: Zombies! refers to a Haitian tale of Voodoo as "real." While each book begins and ends with some additional facts and stories about its subject, this series is purely recreational.

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