Wicked Weird: My Rotten Friend by Stephanie J. Blake

SHE'S MY BEST FRIEND.

BUT I WON'T LIE.

PENELOPE SMELLS

LIKE SOMETHING DIED.

And while everyone else in the class is growing, Penelope seems to be, er, losing it.

Teeth, well, sure. Everyone in class loses one now and then. But Penelope is... kinda running low on them. That doesn't stop her from biting now and again, though. And one day she turned up missing ... (I hate to say it) an eyeball. Flies begin to circle her head.

Penelope's a real gross-out girl. She's acting strange, too.

SHE SAID SHE'S IN AN EATING MOOD.

BUT SHE DIDN'T WANT TO SHARE MY FOOD.

And when Penelope bites a coach, she has to leave school.

I HAVE TO TAKE MY BEST FRIEND HOME.

I RIDE MY BIKE. SHE JUST SHUFFLES ALONG.

Birds fall out of the trees and cats run away shrieking, as Penelope drops a few body parts along the sidewalk.

Some friendships have their ups and downs, and when your best friend's interests are centered on a "zombie buffet," the relationship seems doomed, in Stephanie J. Blake's My Rotten Friend (Albert Whitman and Company, 2015). Illustrator Mariano Epelbaum adds to the satire, setting the story in a cartoon-style idyllic, picket-fenced town, while author Blake has freaky fun spoofing all the usual zombie tropes in a story that will appeal to kids bored with friendly ghosties and winsome witches but with a stomach for the undead genre and like their Halloween tales with a ghastly tongue-in-cheek twist.

For funny zombie stories that offer a kitchy heartwarming twist, try Kelly DiPucchio's Zombie in Love and Zombie in Love 2 + 1 (see reviews here)