Seleste reviews: Zombie Tag by Hannah Moskowitz
January 15, 2012 in Young Adult Reviews
Hardcover: 240 pages- Price: $15.99
- Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (December 20, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1596437200
- ISBN-13: 978-1596437203
- Hannah Moskowitz’s Website
Thirteen year old Wil Lowenstein can’t help wishing his parents would stop ignoring him and go back to the way they were before. Before, like before his older brother Graham died in a recent accidental fire.
Wil copes with Graham’s death by focusing on Zombie Tag, a mafia/capture the flag hybrid game he created for his friends. He, his best friend Anthony, and their other friends fight off brain-eating zombies with their mother’s spatulas. What Wil doesn’t tell anybody is that if he could bring his dead brother back as a zombie, he would. In a heartbeat.
In fact, when he finds a bell that can summon all the dead within five miles, he seizes the chance. Graham returns from the dead, but he’s not the same. None of the returned are. At first they’re just emotionless, apathetic — lifeless. But then some of the zombies slowly start to get one emotion back — anger. And Wil is going to have to find a way to fix zombie-Graham and turn him back into the angsty teenager he?s supposed to be before it’s too late. Because some of the zombies are banding together and plotting something. And Wil isn’t sure his mom’s spatulas are really going to do the trick if the zombies really do want to eat his brains.
There aren’t a lot of authors whose work I run to the bookstore in order to buy on release day—especially when release day falls the week before Christmas and the bookstore is in the heart of the shopping district. I did it to get Zombie Tag though, and I don’t regret the time spent in traffic or the two near accidents (might have regretted an actual accident, but near accidents are okay). I’ve read and loved/liked Hannah Moskowitz’s other books, but those were both YA contemporary. Zombie Tag is her first foray into both middle grade and the paranormal.
She needs to write more of it.
Rather than the typical goofy and/or action-adventure middle grade that dominates the market, Zombie Tag takes the family trauma and drama that permeates Moskowitz’s YA work and makes it accessible to a younger audience. Zombie Tag isn’t just about raising the dead or a silly game; it’s about the pain of letting go and one child’s desperation to fix his family when they fall apart after his older brother’s death. It alternates between touching, funny, and heart-wrenching. If you haven’t read any of her work, you might not understand quite how masterfully she weaves those emotions into her work. (And I highly recommend this book to any young person struggling with loss.)
Wil is a pretty typical middle school boy. He likes to play with his friends, has a crush on the one girl in their group, and doesn’t really want to grow up. His emotions jump around, and though that might bother some people, it’s very realistic for a young teen—especially one dealing with the aftermath of losing his brother and best friend.
The story revolves around what it means to die, what that does to the people left behind, and whether or not bringing someone back would be the best thing for anyone. In that regard, it’s a little like The Monkey’s Paw (for those who remember that story), but without the scare factor. Yes, zombie junkies need a warning here: these aren’t your typical zombies.
However, I can tell you that this is the first book I’ve ever brought into the house that my son and my husband are fighting over who gets to read it next (and both tried to take it from me while I was still reading it). The other grownup has to wait though. The Boy gets this one first.
Favorite line:
I guess the broken bell could end up being a problem, but only if I wanted to be some kind of crusader going around the world waking up dead people. And that sounds like a time-suck anyway.
I have a special guest today as well. Since this is a middle grade book, I felt it was only right to have a reader of the target audience do a small review as well. So without further ado, I give you my ten-year-old son, known on the internet as The Boy…
Well, the book was pretty short, which is kind of good because I could finish it quick, but kind of bad since sometimes people don’t want the story to end. And it does have a few bad words in it (“oh my God” &, I think, “stupid.” Mom interjection here, these aren’t bad words at home in and of themselves, but apparently they are at school *shrug*), which kind of sets the whole thing off for being a book for my age group.
They did have some funny parts and some cool parts in the book. Like it was funny that the zombies were scared of the kids playing Zombie Tag. (SPOILER ALERT) Also, at first I thought they were going to kill everybody but they were really trying to find a way to kill themselves again. (END SPOILER)
I’m going to ask him a few questions since this is his first review.
Did you think the family was realistic? Yes, well no. I don’t know actually.
Did you think the book was unique? Yes, because it’s the only book where the main star was a spatula.
How did it make you feel? Pretty scared but happy at the same time.
If you were faced with the possibility of bringing someone back from the dead would you? If it was someone related to me, I would, but if they were trying to eat me, no.
If Hannah Moskowitz wrote another book for kids, would you read it? Well, yes, because it was pretty much a good book, except for the bad words part.
(Yeah, I need to have a talk with him about what constitutes bad words.)
The Boy’s Rating (I told him to take the “bad words” thing out of the equation):
