It is that most spooky time of the year, and here in the book bunnies house, we are getting ready for Halloween. So Caramel thought it would be appropriate to talk about a book with zombies in it which just got published this past month: Zombie and Brain Are Friends, written by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic and illustrated by Laan Cham. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.
Sprinkles: So it is almost Halloween and we are just in time to talk about this picture book about a zombie and a brain that become friends.
Caramel: Yep.
S: Can you tell us a bit about the book?
C: Sure, the story happens in a world in which there are only zombies (at least we don’t see any other people, humans or bunnies), and this one zombie family farms brains. And in this book brains grow in fields.
S: So kind of like cabbage?
C: Yeah, kinda.
S: Okay, that will take some getting used to, but let us continue.
C: Yeah, so in this family there is a boy zombie, whose name is Zeb. And one day, Zeb finds a baby brain while walking around, and he realizes that it’s alive. And they become friends.
S: But the brain is food basically, right?
C: I guess it’s like when people have a pet pig and they still eat pork. Kind of confusing but seems to happen all the time.
S: I see. Okay so the brain is foodstuff, but Zeb becomes friends with it. The back of the book was talking about the thing a lot of parents say to their little ones: “Don’t play with your food”. One could imagine then that this causes some trouble in the household?
C: Not really. But there is some confusion, and things get out of hand a bit. At least for a while.
S: Hmm, but hopefully all ends well?
C: Of course! It is a picture book, Sprinkles! Nothing too bad could happen.
S: Of course you are right, Caramel.
S: Okay, so what did you think about the book?
C: It is quite weird actually. You know I actually don’t like zombies, they kind of scare me, but this book was not scary at all. It was in fact good. And weird. You know, brains growing in bushes! Zombie farmers farming brains! And brains making friends with zombies! All so weird! But in a good way.
S: I do know you don’t really love zombies. Remember the time I reviewed a whole lot of children’s books about zombies?
C: Yeah, I didn’t like those books too much.
S: I know you did not like several of them. But I think you found one of them a lot of fun: Zombies Hate Stuff. It was quite funny, like Penguins Hate Stuff, which you had reviewed a bit earlier.
C: Yeah, penguins do hate a lot of stuff.
S: Apparently so do zombies! But from this book we learn that they also love brains!
C: Everyone already knows that, Sprinkles! Don’t they always go around saying “Brainzzz!”?
S: Yeah, but they can love brains, not just to eat, but also for friendship!
C: Yes, it is true that we learn that in this book. But again, it is not a real thing. Zombies being friends with brains, and brains growing in fields, and so on.
S: Of course the brain-eating zombies themselves are not real, either.
C: And I am so happy about that!
S: I agree, Caramel. So this book was quite absurd in some sense, right? Things did not make too much sense in our world. There was some weird logic within the story world, but it did require ignoring a lot of what we are supposed to know about brains and zombies to get into the story.
C: Yes, but then again, I prefer not to know much about zombies. I decided to read this book because it had a very friendly-looking pink brain and a smiling green-faced boy on the cover, and it said they were friends. I always like stories about good friends.
S: True, your very first review was about the beginning of one of those legendary friendships, when Narwhal met Jelly!
C: Yes! I love Narwhal and Jelly! Anyways, Zombie and Brain Are Friends was a lot of fun to read.
S: We, in fact, read it out loud together, right?
C: And we laughed out loud together, too!
S: Yes! Okay, maybe this is a good time to end this review. We need our sleep before Friday, so that night we can do all sorts of spooky things–
C: Yes! And eat lots and lots of candy!
S: Of course! What would you like to tell our readers then?
C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews! And I hope you, too, will get lots and lots of candy on Halloween!
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