From Cottaquilla Press author, Sherry Snider ~
Nice! John and Torres of Torres Vs Zombies reviewed My Pet Zombie on the Podcast. 🙂
John and Torres
These guys are awesome. Imagine a Sci-Fi/Comic Con weekend. You spend a few hours at the local pub with your buddies discussing and debating the differences between World War Z zombies and The Walking Dead zombies. After a few pints, the chat gets even more interesting. THAT’s the Torres vs Zombies weekly podcast.
NOTE: Torres vs Zombies is a podcast for ADULTS (adult language and subject matter). They were cool enough to check out My Pet Zombie and the complementary coloring book, but the podcast is not suitable for work (without headphones) or around young kids.
With that said, I really wanted to get their opinion of My Pet Zombie. It IS a different approach. Most of the preexisting children’s books and movies about zombies, as cool as they are, still lean a bit to the grotesque. My Pet Zombie was written and illustrated specifically to introduce very young children to zombies without giving them nightmares.
As bold and boisterous as John and Torres are on the podcast, they’re actually very sensitive to the experiences and perceptions of children, so I value their opinions about zombie children’s books. (You really should check out the podcasts and keep your ear open to some of the discussions about Carl in The Walking Dead TV show and graphic novels.)
The review is around the 36 minutes mark into the 4/15/13 podcast, Your Zombie Show if you’d like to hear their full take on the book and the coloring book.
The Review
The following quoted sections are an approximate transcription of the review, but the audio is even better. 🙂
This is a wonderful, wonderful children’s book. …I really loved this book.
It was very cute. It’s a great way to explain zombies to children who might be scared of them, and it incorporated a lot of the newer stuff like using a zombie as a repellant from other zombies…very Michonne-esque.
It’s got a Fido kind of feel to it, if you’ve seen that movie. The thing I like about it, though, is that it is indeed appropriate for children because there are zombie “children’s books” out there that are not really appropriate for children. But this one you can definitely actually sit down and read to a kid.
The pictures are not overly scary, but at the same time, as an adult, you can sit down and read it and (I mean, it’s not a long read if you’re an adult) but it can still be entertaining ‘cause you can see the darker reality of zombies underneath like the kid in the book is kind of like – the zombie likes to bite people sometimes – but as an adult you see and get it…
Zombies – that’s their whole thing. They bite you and you turn to one, but here it’s put in a manner that a child can understand and just like you would do any of these kinds of things for real world threats like a gun you know where – the gun makes a loud noise – and that kind of stuff to try to get them to understand and respect what it is. It’s done in that way.
It’s really simplified for the child to get them to understand and respect the dangers of what a zombie represents.
I really appreciate things that are made for children but have adult sensibilities in mind ‘cause it’s great to dig through that to see how it’s hidden, like there’s things hidden underneath the children’s veneer and see that essence of what zombies are and how a child would understand a zombie.
What makes children wonderful and beautiful and magical is that sense of innocence and the sense of wonder and a belief that nothing is made to hurt them.
Children don’t see evil the same way that we do. I appreciate that it [My Pet Zombie] is not a talking down to a child but it’s a talking in a way that a child understands the threat without making it sound like it’s apocalyptic.
…and she included a wonderful coloring book.
Yes, for a limited time, the companion coloring book (pdf) for My Pet Zombie is free to anyone who purchases the ebook, My Pet Zombie on Amazon.com.
I thought it was great, and essentially it’s the pictures from the book but that you can color.
…and you know what, in the Zombie Apocalypse, that’s going to be a good activity. It’s quiet. It takes your mind off things. It’s very Zen.
It’s a good thing to keep a child occupied.
They’ve done studies – ‘cause there’s a lot of people who work in call centers – and that’s one of the activities that they let people in call centers do even when they’re on the phone. They let ‘em color. It apparently calms you and lowers your blood pressure. It’s a good activity.
And, yes. I worked in tech support several years ago. I wish I’d thought to color, especially while waiting for a computer to reboot.
Check out My Pet Zombie on Amazon.com. It’s great. It gets a 5 zombie review.
I really liked it. Do understand that it’s a children’s book, so don’t go reading it and saying it didn’t have enough blood and guts for me. It’s not blood and guts. It’s for a child. It is in fact appropriate for a child with an age rating of 3-7, and it is in fact appropriate for 3-7 year olds. It can be appreciated by an adult, but it is for children.
Yeah. There is a bucket of guts in the book, but it’s a very cutesy/cartoony bucket of “guts” from dinner leftovers. It’s kind of like a slop bucket of “edible” garbage…if you’ve ever lived on a farm with goats or pigs.
Remember to check out the Torres vs Zombies podcast, and if you really want to join in the fun, like the Torres vs Zombies Facebook page. They keep me laughing…zombie style. 🙂