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Toos and the Zombies

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

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Belciglio and Anderson are back with a new zombie-fighting adventure for Toos (Toos Goes Uptown, 2012).
The rare—and therefore lucky—male calico’s human family, John and Kyle, take him from their home in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Chicago with talk of fighting zombies. Chicago native Anderson’s renderings of the Charlotte airport and Chicago cityscape capture the essence of these settings from the cat’s point of view. The chatty text, though overly wordy for a picture book, conveys the feline narrator’s personality and mood. Looking out their hotel window, for instance, Toos comes eye to eye with, not zombies, but pigeons and rambles, “I glared at them….They just sat there! HUH?!?...Charlotte birds would have been scared of me, and flown off. Maybe these pigeons were used to scary zombies and I’m not scary enough!” Anderson’s illustrations, especially the one of Toos having a staring contest with three green-headed pigeons against a backdrop of Chicago skyscrapers, will entrance kids. After psyching himself up to be a scary Zombie-Fighting-Ninja-Cat, Toos is upset to be left in a carrier while John and Kyle go off to fight zombies. He escapes from his cage and comes face to face with a green-faced girl zombie—and runs outside in terror. Young readers will identify with his disappointment in himself: “Zombie-Fighting-Ninja-Cat? Really? More like I was a Scaredy Cat!” But when Toos sees John and Kyle running toward a giant, shiny bean (readers in the know will recognize this iconic sculpture in Millennium Park) with a horde of zombies behind them, he attacks them all, sending them running and yelling. Then he realizes John and Kyle are also yelling—for him to stop—and Chris, the director, yells, “Cut!” Instead of thinking Toos had ruined the movie, though, the director exclaims how real the cat’s attack made it look. The movie wins an award and Toos sums up, “Cool, huh? I’m a movie star. Told you I was lucky!”
Young zombie-crazed readers who discover this happy pairing of dramatic narrative and engaging illustrations will consider themselves lucky as well.

Pub Date: May 3, 2014

ISBN: 978-1494932787

Page Count: 34

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: July 17, 2014

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JINXED

A solid series starter for tinkerers and adventurers alike.

Even robot cats have a mind of their own.

All 12-year-old Canadian Lacey Chu’s ever wanted was to become a companioneer like her idol, Monica Chan, co-founder of the largest tech firm in North America, Moncha Corp., and mastermind behind the baku. Bakus, “robotic pets with all the features of a smartphone,” revolutionized society and how people interact with technology. As a companioneer, Lacey could work on bakus: designing, innovating, and building. When she receives a grant rejection from Profectus Academy of Science and Technology, a school that guarantees employment at Moncha Corp., she’s devastated. A happenstance salvaging of a mangled cat baku might just change the game. Suddenly, Lacey’s got an in with Profectus and is one step closer to her dream. Jinx, however, is not quite like the other bakus—he’s a wild cat that does things without commands. Together with Jinx, Lacey will have to navigate competitive classmates and unsettling corporate secrets. McCulloch effectively strikes a balance between worldbuilding and action. High-stakes baku battles demonstrate the emotional bond between (robotic) pet and owner. Readers will also connect to the relationships the Asian girl forges with her diverse classmates, including a rivalry with Carter (a white boy who’s the son of Moncha’s other co-founder, Eric Smith), a burgeoning crush on student Tobias, who’s black, and evolving friendships new and old. While some mysteries are solved, a cliffhanger ending raises even more for the next installment.

A solid series starter for tinkerers and adventurers alike. (Science fiction. 8-13)

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-4926-8374-2

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Sourcebooks

Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019

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THE BAD GUYS

From the Bad Guys series , Vol. 1

We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face.

Four misunderstood villains endeavor to turn over a new leaf…or a new rap sheet in Blabey's frenzied romp.

As readers open the first page of this early chapter book, Mr. Wolf is right there to greet them, bemoaning his reputation. "Just because I've got BIG POINTY TEETH and RAZOR-SHARP CLAWS and I occasionally like to dress up like an OLD LADY, that doesn't mean… / … I'm a BAD GUY." To prove this very fact, Mr. Wolf enlists three equally slandered friends into the Good Guys Club: Mr. Snake (aka the Chicken Swallower), Mr. Piranha (aka the Butt Biter), and Mr. Shark (aka Jaws). After some convincing from Mr. Wolf, the foursome sets off determined to un-smirch their names (and reluctantly curbing their appetites). Although these predators find that not everyone is ready to be at the receiving end of their helpful efforts, they use all their Bad Guy know-how to manage a few hilarious good deeds. Blabey has hit the proverbial nail on the head, kissed it full on the mouth, and handed it a stick of Acme dynamite. With illustrations that startle in their manic comedy and deadpan direct address and with a narrative that follows four endearingly sardonic characters trying to push past (sometimes successfully) their fear-causing natures, this book instantly joins the classic ranks of Captain Underpants and The Stinky Cheese Man.

We challenge anyone to read this and keep a straight face. (Fiction. 7-11)

Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-545-91240-2

Page Count: 144

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016

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