Description
Reading level: Ages 4 and up
Library Binding: 32 pages
Publisher: Holiday House (September 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0823419630
ISBN-13: 978-0823419630
Where to Buy this Book
Click here to visit the Google Books page for Zombie Nite Cafe to see purchasing options.
Fun Facts
I got the idea for this book one night while I was out walking my dog Curly. But Curly didn’t rhyme with Café so I named the dog in the story J.J.
Here is the original illustration for the Zombie Nite Café cover:
Reviews & Awards
THE ZOMBIE NITE CAFÉ is a 2007 Moonbeam Children’s Gold Medal Book Award winner for best Picture Book of the year in the Holiday Category.
Here’s an eatery that stands out from the crowd—not only for its menu, which features Chicken McMaggots and Eyeballs Flambé, but also for a clientele that runs to vampires, ghouls, aliens, specters and less identifiable uglies. Though Kutner has a tendency to force the rhymes (in what is supposed to be a couplet, the Bogeyman arrives “To celebrate one more birthday / In the Zombie Nite Café”), Long depicts a rib-tickling gallery of comically oogy, popeyed customers oozing or staggering through the door to place orders or make for the “All U Dare To Eat” buffet. The boy narrator who wanders in gets a hostile reception—“ ‘What do you want?’ the waitress said. / She glared at me and scratched one head”—and beats a hasty retreat, but readers will definitely be tempted to linger. (Picture book. 6-8)
Kirkus Reviews
On a late-night walk with his dog, the young narrator ends up at the Zombie Nite Café, where ghouls, werewolves, and veiny eyeballs hang out, ordering from a menu that includes “scrambled brains” and “malformed meat patties.” While watching all the strange goings-on, the boy has a narrow escape and is saved by his dog; then both skedaddle back home, where they hide under the covers and proffer this advice: “…that’s the truth—no more to say./Beware the Zombie Nite Café!” The slight rhyming text is accompanied by pen-and-ink and digitally colored cartoon illustrations. The result is an undistinguished book that children will probably like because of its subject matter.
— Kindergarten-Grade 3 School Library Journal
Illustrations for Zombie Nite Café by Ethan Long, 2007.
