B Is For Book

I was surfing around Netgalley this morning and came across this...

I mean come on... there was no way I was going to keep scrolling past this one!

A is for Asteroids, Z is for Zombies: A bedtime book about the coming apocalypse (what a great title!) by Paul Lewis and illustrated by Ken Lamug. On first glance you have to assume this is going to be along the lines of Go the F**k to Sleep and We're Going On A Bar Hunt. The sort of parody book that have been so popular of late.

The blurb for the books says it pokes fun at the constant conversation about our planet being too far gone to save, and offers a vision of the apocalypse for every letter of the alphabet.

Our tale starts out with little Timmy, who asks his dad if it's true that zombies eat brains like the kids in his class have told him, and if everyone will die when asteroids fall from the sky. Good questions Timmy.

Dad remembers that Aunt Dorcas got Timmy a book about the impending doom of the planet, so he has a read through to see if it will help answer his questions. Although I think his main question should be, is Aunt Dorcas getting the help she needs if that's the sort of book she's getting her nephew?

"I opened the book

In the hope I would find

It would soothe Timmy's

Troubled and worrying mind."

I love Dad's optimism!

When you turn the page you're greeted by the dreaded asteroid, and Dad in the corner reading the book. I love this format. With each new apocalyptic page you can see his expression change from confusion to horror, and a lot of other emotions in between.

Possibly this page is my favourite, it made me laugh more than I probably should have...

And this page is probably the only one I'm really worried about happening IRL...

I really like this book as a whole. Love the illustrations, they're apocalyptic and amusing, with just the right amount of comedy gore. And enjoyed the amusing rhymes on each page until you get to X, but X only annoys me because it's "X if for extinction", and that's not an X! I'm also not keen on some of the verses in Zombie, but the more I read them the more they grow on me... much like a zombie's blood-lust for brains does.

While I love this book, and it made me chuckle, I always wonder about the target audience for these sorts of books. Picture books are mostly synonymous with young children, but it's not for them. But you could definitely give it to someone who's a teen (or older) and they'd find it amusing. The best audience is probably geeks, but who knows!

What I can say is that it was an amusing read, and is obviously very informative about what possible apocalypses we should watch out for. So you should definitely read this one.

Happy reading, and watch out for those zombies!