A standing ovation for undead environmentalist theater.
There’s something rotting in Deadmark, and it’s not the zombies—it’s a science-denial conspiracy!
The humans of Ignorway destroyed the environment so badly that viruses ran rampant. One was a zombie virus, and eventually, the zombies abandoned the ruined land to create Deadmark, their rational, science-positive democracy. In this Hamlet-meets-zombies story, when Edda’s mother, the elected Lead Scientist, mysteriously goes missing, Agonista, Edda’s environmental lawbreaking businesswoman aunt, is selected to replace her. Greed-driven Agonista immediately starts dismantling sustainable energy sources in favor of oil. With the help of allies—vampire bat Bram, the enchanted floating skull Rick (of the Glob Theater)—Edda discovers her mother’s dark, humanized fate. The heroes quickly stage a production of the scheme and watch for Agonista’s guilty reactions. Adventurous twists and turns—exile, a naval battle, Zombies for the Ethical Treatment of Humans and their development of cruelty-free, lab-grown FeignBrain (“Make your next meal a no-brainer!”)—go alongside puns and Shakespearian winks. The horror elements are so campy and over-the-top that, despite the brain-eating monsters, it’s funny instead of scary. The resulting cartoonishness allows the story to get away with blunt moralizing without breaking the comedic tone, with the heavy-handedness played as part of the joke without undermining genuine messages. The zombies and Bram are shades of green; humans are racially ambiguous.
A standing ovation for undead environmentalist theater. (Humor/Horror. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-948931-13-7
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Hazy Dell Press
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Affecting and hopeful.
A stray dog finds her destiny amid the chaos of a Southern California wildfire.
Wombat is a small dog with stubby legs and “silly ears / that look like furry cookies”—almost impossibly cute in Bricking’s occasional pencil-style vignettes. She’s mastered the art of survival, so when a mysterious internal voice prods her to go toward the fire, she resists. “The wrong way is the right way. / The right way is the wrong way,” the voice insists. When she tells fellow stray Silas about it, he tells Wombat she’s a “destiny dog,” bound to “find their person / before their person / can find them.” Convinced, she decides to follow the mysterious instructions. Meanwhile, Henry, a boy who’s leery of dogs, loves the bats at the wildlife rehabilitation center where Mama Ro, a veterinarian, works; his Mama J is a librarian. Henry and Barnabas, a fruit bat at the center, are both uprooted by the fire, and their paths converge with Wombat’s at an emergency shelter. The third-person perspective shifts from character to character in clusters of free-verse poems that fully immerse readers in each one’s experiences in turn. This extra-concentrated delivery of Applegate’s typically spare writing proves effective, balancing terror and sadness with heart and humor. Henry has light brown skin, Mama Ro has curly black hair and brown skin, and Mama J presents white.
Affecting and hopeful. (Verse fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780063221178
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Storytide/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven.
An aspiring scientist and a budding artist become friends and help each other with dream projects.
Unfolding in mid-1980s Sacramento, California, this story stars 12-year-olds Rosalind and Benjamin as first-person narrators in alternating chapters. Ro’s father, a fellow space buff, was killed by a drunk driver; the rocket they were working on together lies unfinished in her closet. As for Benji, not only has his best friend, Amir, moved away, but the comic book holding the clue for locating his dad is also missing. Along with their profound personal losses, the protagonists share a fixation with the universe’s intriguing potential: Ro decides to complete the rocket and hopes to launch mementos of her father into outer space while Benji’s conviction that aliens and UFOs are real compels his imagination and creativity as an artist. An accident in science class triggers a chain of events forcing Benji and Ro, who is new to the school, to interact and unintentionally learn each other’s secrets. They resolve to find Benji’s dad—a famous comic-book artist—and partner to finish Ro’s rocket for the science fair. Together, they overcome technical, scheduling, and geographical challenges. Readers will be drawn in by amusing and fantastical elements in the comic book theme, high emotional stakes that arouse sympathy, and well-drawn character development as the protagonists navigate life lessons around grief, patience, self-advocacy, and standing up for others. Ro is biracial (Chinese/White); Benji is White.
Charming, poignant, and thoughtfully woven. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-300888-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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