I Want to Eat Your Books

by Karin Lefranc, Tyler Parker

Overview

He’s limping strangely down the hall with outstretched arms and a groaning drawl. A zombie! Could it really be? You race to class, but turn to see he’s sitting in the desk right next to you!

But odds are you’ll probably be okay, because this is no ordinary zombie. This zombie doesn’t want to eat your brains—he wants to eat your books! Hide your textbooks and your fairy tales, because the little zombie is hungry and he doesn’t discriminate between genres. Will the school library be devoured, or will the children discover something the zombie likes to do with books even more than eating them?

This monster book is silly and fun, with a strong message about kindness and friendship. The little zombie teaches kids not to jump to conclusions and to give everyone a chance. And when a real-life mummy shows up, the zombie is the first to step up and offer the mummy his friendship—and to teach her a few things about the joy of books. This is the perfect monster book for little ones who want a thrill but aren’t looking for anything too scary.

For kids ages 3 to 6, this is not a scary monster book; rather, it's a great introduction to the importance of reading books and all that you can learn from them. This should have a big draw to librarians and booksellers as well as kids who enjoy books about monster. None of the monsters in the book are scary, however, and it's not a book about kids trying overcome the monsters in their house or fight them. Instead, the kids actually are kind to the zombie and draw him into their friend circle, which is a great lesson for kids to learn.

Sky Pony Press, with our Good Books, Racehorse and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of books for young readers—picture books for small children, chapter books, books for middle grade readers, and novels for young adults. Our list includes bestsellers for children who love to play Minecraft; stories told with LEGO bricks; books that teach lessons about tolerance, patience, and the environment, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781634501729
Publisher:	Sky Pony Press
Publication date:	09/22/2015
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	975,465
Product dimensions:	10.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Karin Lefranc is a certified children’s yoga teacher and mother to three girls and one young boy. Karin grew up all over the world, living in Sweden, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. She attended Bard College in New York and had the opportunity to travel the world again while working for IDG Books helping to license the For Dummies® series into over thirty-five languages. This is Karin’s debut picture book. She resides with her family in Simsbury, Connecticut.

Tyler Parker received his BFA in illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art and also has an MA in Sequential Design and Illustration from the University of Brighton. He is the illustrator of more than seven children’s books including Monsters Meet on Mondays and The Ice Cream Shuffle. He currently resides in Seattle, Washington.

Editorial Reviews

07/27/2015
The new kid at school turns out to be a green zombie, but he’s interested in eating books, not brains. Parker contributes vibrant, chunky digital illustrations that evoke a sense of real chaos as the young zombie chomps his way through textbooks and paperbacks before setting his sights even higher. Unfortunately, Lefranc’s rhymes tend to lurch around in a manner not unlike that of her green antihero (“The zombie stops and shoots a glare,/ then tilts his head to sniff the air./ His monstrous plan I quickly see/ is to devour the library”), sapping some of the fun from the story. The narrator, a boy in a striped shirt and glasses, is able to turn the zombie’s attention from eating books to reading them, but the last-minute arrival of a mummy, who the zombie subdues in turn, feels tacked on and rushed. Ages 3–6. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

2015-07-15
A zombie wreaks havoc in the library until he learns that books are to be read and shared—not eaten. In Lefranc's debut, she uses rhyming couplets to deliver her tale. Unfortunately the rhythm takes on a forced singsong quality that overpowers the often clever, humorous descriptions. "The zombie stops and shoots a glare, / then tilts his head to sniff the air. / His monstrous plan I quickly see / is to devour the library!" Periodically, the zombie shouts the titular refrain, "I WANT TO EAT YOUR BOOKS!" As the kids in school grow alarmed at the behavior of this unwelcome creature, one brave boy has the brilliant idea to offer the zombie a book about the brain. Why this book-eating monster would respond to the popular zombie-eating-brains trope goes unexamined. "I hold it up with shaking hand. / I hope our friend will understand. / He grunts and groans. Then grasps the book / and flips the page to take a look!" Luckily the zombie gets engaged in the contents and requests, "PLEASE READ!" Although the message is unquestionably well-intentioned, the lackluster text and peculiar logic combine with Parker's flat, often garish illustrations for an underwhelming outing. Pass. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews

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