Zombie Tag

October 10, 2011
In this moving, thought-provoking tale—YA author Moskowitz’s (Invincible Summer) first for middle-grade readers—she explores the complexities of grief and acceptance through an extended zombie metaphor. Twelve-year-old Wil Lowenstein, is still getting over the recent sudden death of his older brother, Graham. To distract himself, he throws himself into a game he’s invented called Zombie Tag, which he and his friends play in secret (this is also a world in which zombie attacks have been a past threat). When Wil discovers a magic bell supposedly capable of raising the dead, he tries it out and succeeds, bringing back Graham and dozens more. But the zombies aren’t what Wil expected: they aren’t mindless, brain-eating monsters, but they are all but incapable of emotion. It’s up to Wil to decide his brother’s fate. While whimsical in its concept, the book’s tone and theme are quite serious, and Wil’s emotional spectrum, including alienation, denial, depression, and anger, will be familiar to anyone struggling with loss. Although the book’s message isn’t subtle, the characters are sympathetic, and their losses are deeply felt. Ages 9–12.

October 15, 2011
Wilson discovers that being undead is not the same as never having died, in this contemporary version of "The Monkey's Paw" from a middle-schooler's perspective. Wilson thinks he knows how to put his broken family right, months after his beloved older brother died of an asthma attack in the family's bathroom. His invented indoor, nighttime game, Zombie Tag, by luck allows him to find a zombie resurrection bell secreted in his best friend's house. But the Graham who comes back from the dead, along with everyone else buried in the local cemetery, is vacant, dull and polite, only capable of emotionally experiencing anger and fear. Wilson's first-person narrative hints matter-of-factly at a world understood to be extraordinary: Wilson's father is engaged in time-based travel work in an unnamed business; friends' fathers are said to have seen unicorns and yetis; a decades-old incident involving zombies is common knowledge; and most amusingly and true to form: Media attention on the local appearance of zombies is frenzied and then disappears entirely. Despite these intriguing elements, gaps and coincidences in the plot seem abundant, and the story isn't as fleshed out as readers might hope. Heartbreaking at times and odd at others; an intriguing but only partly successful variation on the zombie theme with a look at mortality and the process of grieving. (Paranormal fiction. 10-13)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

December 1, 2011

Gr 5-8-Ever since his older brother's death earlier this year, 12-year-old Wil's coping strategy has been to escape with his friends into Zombie Tag, a game in which the "zombie" tries to capture the other players and eat their brains before they can find the hidden object and escape with it. Of course, he knows (or thinks he knows) that zombies don't really eat people's brains: he has scoured the Internet to piece together information on the zombie awakening of 30 years ago that the government still denies happened. From his research, he knows that some kind of bell woke the dead all those years ago, and that it has been hidden in a top-secret place so that an awakening can never happen again. When his friend Anthony lets slip that his father is the keeper of this Wake-Up Bell, Wil is determined to find it and bring Graham back to life. He is ultimately successful, but having his older brother back isn't at all what he expected, and he finds that it is lonelier with Zombie Graham than it was without him. Moskowitz keeps readers guessing as to how Wil ultimately comes to terms with his situation. The efforts of Wil and his parents to cope first with Graham's death and then with his reappearance are a major thread in the story. While Moskowitz's characters are fully formed and believable, it's never quite clear whether the author's going for laughs or poignancy, and ultimately, the result falls a little flat. Still, this unique twist on zombie stories will engage readers who are looking for contemporary fiction sprinkled with a dash of the morbid.-Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2011
Grades 5-8 Six months ago, 12-year-old Wil lost his older brother, Graham, to a severe respiratory attack. While at his friend Anthony's house playing zombie tag a pretty cool game Wil and Graham made up that simulates a zombie invasionWil discovers a secret artifact hidden by Anthony's father: a bell that supposedly raised a group of the dead 30 years ago. Wil steals it and gives it a go, and presto: 70 local dead people rise from their graves. Graham is among them, and his family is thrilled to see him. But he's different now, so emotionless and cold that Wil begins to wonder if he's made a horrible mistake. Moskowitz's latest is nearly unclassifiable by genre and that's much of the charm. Is this contemporary fiction? Fantasy? Horror? What's more, Moskowitz deftly swerves between comedy, pathos, and even terror, and makes it look so effortless readers won't think twice about the strangeness of the mix. There are a few plot bumps near the end, but the surprising amount of heart and wistfulness behind this will carry readers through.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2012
Wil would do anything to bring back his brother, Graham, who died during an asthma attack. When Wil discovers a bell that revives (but then destroys) the dead, he rings it with unexpected results. Zombie-Graham returns, but as an emotionless shell of his former self. Wil's realistic struggle with loss anchors this sometimes absurd yet funny and honest exploration of grief.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)