The Zombie Feed reviews one of the first children’s book for zombie kids!

Over the course of a recent weekend where I attended a literary convention, I came across the fine young gentlemen working the Shroud Publications table in the dealer’s hall. They have all sorts of goodies: a fancy hardcover written by Tom Piccirilli, attractive novellas by Rio Youers and Maurice Broaddus, and a hilarious looking dark humor series around a character named Hiram Grange. In the middle of all this sat a children’s book by Nathaniel Lambert with art by Danny Evarts.

It’s Okay to be a Zombie–an Un-Children’s Book.

Right, so I’m always looking out for gifts to get my two young kids, one is six and one is three. The six year old is somewhat advanced in her reading, tearing through stuff like James and the Giant Peach and random young fantasy books. In other words, there aren’t many pictures in her books. My three year old, he still likes pictures in his books, so I thought he’d enjoy It’s Okay to be a Zombie.

I buy a copy. I take it home. My son seems amused by the drawing of the child zombie on the cover. My daughter is horrified. She starts screaming for mother. “Daddy is trying to scare my brother!” I look at her brother. He doesn’t seem scared. He’s flipping through the pages and pointing at nice artistic renderings of a kid zombie biting into the skull of some adult.

My son asks me to read to him. What father could say no?

We dig into the book. It’s cute. The story tells us that it’s okay to be a zombie, that it’s okay to be different. So what if your teeth fall out? So what if your leg rots off? You’re still special, except now you like to eat brains. My son seemed to enjoy the story. He wants me to read it again.

By now the six year old has pulled her mother into the room. She points at me with the conviction of a Roman Emperor giving a gladiator the thumbs down signal. My spouse sees the book. Her face surprises me. It blanches. I expected smiles and a “what a great book!” She yanks the book away, leaving both me and my son in angry tears. She’s mumbling something about child services.

Unfortunately, I’ve not seen the book since then. But I can recommend this $9.95 full color kids book as a great novelty gift for those horror fans you know who have kids. Sure, they won’t be able to read the book to their children, but they’ll be amused by your choice of gift. Most of them probably won’t even call the police.

Get your child the gift of the undead. Buy a copy of It’s Okay to be a Zombie–an Un-Children’s Book.