Description
Paperback: 32 pages
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company (September 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0807594911
ISBN-13: 978-0807594919
Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.8 x 0.2 inches
Fun Facts
- Originally the letter U was going to stand for Undertaker, C for Cauldron, D for devil, O for Owl, P for pumpkin, T for toad, V for vampire, and W for wizard.
- For the letter N, when I wrote Night stalker, I envisioned it as a person not a bug.
- The illustrations for Alien, Mummy, Ooze, Poltergeist, Yeti, and Zombie took 3 different sketches to get it to look as it does in the book.
Check out some of the original sketches for the Z is for Zombie illustrations:
Reviews & Awards
Z IS FOR ZOMBIE is an IRA/CBC Children’s Choice Book for the 2000 list.
These clever couplets featuring spooky scenes and creatures of the night are great for reading aloud anytime but will prove especially popular during the Halloween season. Well-known favorites like Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster come alive in Kutner’s lively rhyming text and Manders’ gruesome watercolor-and-gouache illustrations. There is plenty of blood and gore, but the language of the rhymes is fairly simple:
Dracula rises in the night, /searching for a neck to bite. And as the title indicates, there is an alphabet theme: one creature object (“X marks the spot”) is used for each letter. A quality book for younger children wanting to get in the holiday spirit.”
– Booklist
“Dracula rises in the night, searching for a neck to bite.” From aliens to zombies, this spooky book features denizens of the dark for each letter of the alphabet…the moody illustrations are appropriately gruesome. Young horror fans will enjoy the creepy subject matter on a dark and stormy night.
–The Horn Book Guide
…M is for Mummy (“A rotting smell seeps in the room/ Mummies stagger from their tomb”) and E is for “Eyeballs lined up by the sink.” Manders renders the malicious details in keenly observed watercolor-and-gauche panels.
–Publishers Weekly
Kutner has fashioned gruesome two-line poems for each letter of the alphabet beginning with aliens and romping through such ghastly wonders as Frankenstein’s monster, a mummy, a nightstalker buglike creature, …Manders’ paintings rendered in watercolor and gouache are masterful…the alphabet format, usually reserved for primary grade audiences, will work with slightly older readers here because of the sophistication of the poetic thought and the more mature style of the artwork. Recommended as a fanciful Halloween treat for readers…–Southeastern Pennsylvania School Library Book Reviewers
Z IS FOR ZOMBIE is an alphabet book of poetry celebrating all things creepy and crawly. The spookily written verses will delight children and may inspire them to write their own poetic lines. Manders’ creepy paintings highlight the sinister flavor. A great book for Halloween.
–Children’s Book Review Service, Inc., Brooklyn, NY
…This book is ideal for the very young reader who has to have a “scary book” but is not ready for really scary subject matter. The text is supplemented by great and eerie full colored illustrations.
–Mark Twain Elementary School, Carson City, NV
X marks the spot, Yeti on a mountaintop, Zombies rise—just a sample of the unearthly alphabet renditions in Z IS FOR ZOMBIE. The illustrations are just scary enough to be intriguing but not gross. Kids will love it, I did! –Houston Elementary School
…Children will love this frightening book! –Mid-Del Schools Book Review Program, Midwest City, OK
Illustrations for Z is for Zombie by John Manders, 1999.
