Cool Ghoul! Ghoulia by Barbara Cantini

MAKING FRIENDS CAN BE SCARY.

And being a zombie doesn't help. A bit lonely, Ghoulia lives in Crumbling Manor with her Aunt Departed, her dog Tragedy, her Uncle Misfortune (unfortunately inconvenienced by being a severed head), and her Grandad Coffin, a ghost.

Ghoulia is warned not to let the village children see her, for fear that their parents might drive them from their home. But Ghoulia can't help want to play with the others

Still, being deathly pale with purple shadows under her eyes and detachable limbs, Ghoulia is pretty sure the neighborhood kids will guess that she is a zombie, so she watches secretly. But one day she overhears the kids excitedly talking about something called trick-or-treating, and the scary costumes--ghosts, vampires, witches-- they are planning to wear for Halloween. Ghoulia has an idea:

"Dressed up as a monster, I can join in the fun!"

So, as her zombie-self, Ghoulia sneaks out of Crumbling Manor, carrying Uncle Misfortune's head as a trick-or-treat bag and bravely introduces herself to a group of kids dressed as a werewolf, a ghost, a witch, a vampire and a zombie, and follows them through the village, collecting goodies. The kids begin to boast about how scary they are, and Ghoulia can't resist trying to impress her new friends.

She tossed her head in her hand, spun it around, and put it back on!

"You're a real Zombie!" a boy shrieked.

Ghoulia has clearly blown her cover, but her new friends are thrilled. Together they form the Secret Monster Society Club, swearing to remain mum to protect the identity of their new friend.

If Ghoulia could have, she would have blushed!

Barbara Cantini's first book,Ghoulia (Book 1) (Amulet Books), joins a long list of uncanny picture book characters of the monster persuasion, from Caspar the Friendly Ghost to Kristyn Crow's Zombelina and Anne Marie Pace's Vampirina Ballerina (Vampirina (1). Share this one along with Cantini's Ghoulia sequels, Ghoulia and the Mysterious Visitor (Book 2) and Ghoulia and the Ghost with No Name (Book 3). "Cantini’s detailed full-color drawings ramp up the comedy on every page with labels and asides, including a page from Ghoulia’s Halloween-prep journal. This well-paced series opener will work well as both a read-aloud and a humorous choice for newly independent readers," reports Publishers Weekly.

Mixed Family: Moldilocks and the Three Scares (A Zombie Tale)? by Lynne Marie

Life as one of the undead isn't going well for little Moldilocks.

Other kids aren't exactly eager to play with her. Wherever she goes, people seem to find another place to be right away.

Morose, Moldilocks wanders alone in the moonlight one night, until she comes upon a haunted house. Perhaps she can find a bite and somewhere to sleep there.

But inside lives an unusual family--the Three Scares. Papa is a monster in the Frankenstein mode; Mommy is a mummy, and Baby is a tiny vampire just cutting his first fangs. Inside the spooky residence, the three are just sitting down to supper.

This soup is so hot, it's boiling my bolts!" yelled Papa.

"It's so hot, I'm unraveling!" moaned Mommy Mummy.

"It's so hot it's giving me a fang-ache!" cried Baby.

Papa suggests they take their dog Plasma out for a moonlit walk while their supper cools.

And no sooner do they depart than Moldilocks approaches, tracking the homey smells of the house. In she goes, unable to resist Baby's bowl of soup. Apparently it's just right for zombie sipping, and with a full tummy, Moldi moves on to the parlor where there are three chairs. Tired and growing sleepy, she tries them all and settles for the smallest chair--Baby Vlad's--upon which to crash--which is just what happens.

Savvy young readers will think they know exactly where this one is going, but there's a jolly surprise ending, in which the Three Scares return to find a different head on Baby Scares' pillow, and it seems the homeless Moldilocks is just what the family needs to be complete.

"Wanna play Corpse and Robbers?" begs Baby.

From its rhyming spoofy title to its perfect take-off on the traditional English cautionary folktale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, author Lynn Marie's and illustrator David Lorenzo's punny and funny modern folk tale of the blended family uses the familiar Three Bears mold with a novel monster trope twist in their Moldilocks and the Three Scares: A Zombie Tale (Sterling Press, 2019 (Am. Ed.)

"Lorenzo's acrylic-and-colored-pencil illustrations feature rich and vivid colors; lots of bones, skulls, and spiderwebs make up most of the home's ambience. How this unusual family finds exactly what they were missing makes for a satisfying tale,” quoths Kirkus Reviews.

SPLOINK! Peanut Butter and Jelly Aliens--A Zombie Culinary Tale by Joe McGee

QUIRKVILLE WAS A QUIET LITTLE TOWN, THE KIND OF PLACE WHERE THE PEOPLE AND ZOMBIES LIVED IN PEACE.

It wasn't always so. When the Zombies first invaded Quirkville, they shambled through the heretofore quiet streets, arms stretched before them--in search of (YIKES!) brains. But one young zombie--Reginald--was a more adventurous eater, one who actually craved exotic food, namely Abigail Zink's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and soon all the zombie invaders turn into PB and J fanciers. Now at lunchtime the busy streets of Quirkville are filled with various people and zombies, all happily in search of that classic sandwich.

But now there are new invaders in Quirkville, a small squadron of space aliens equipped with blasters, and all are clearly looking for lunch in all the wrong places!

But what?

"PIZZA?" SAID REGINALD, OFFERING THE ALIEN A TASTE OF HIS SLICE.

HIS ANTENNAE QUIVERED AND HIS TENTACLES SHOOK. HE DIDN'T LOOK HAPPY!

BRAZZAT! SPLAT!

Firing their blasters, the aliens storm through the town. At the Downtown Grill Greta hastens to flip grilled cheese sandwiches for them, but the aliens fire back with cosmic grape jelly. Icky-sticky!

SPLOINK! SPLOINK! they demand! What can they want!

It's Abigail and Reginald to the rescue, as they figure out that the aliens are there to find the missing ingredients they need to go with their cosmic grape jelly, in Joe McGee's latest, Peanut Butter & Jelly Aliens: A Zombie Culinary Tale (Abrams Books, 2017). Humans and zombies UNITE in serving up the necessities for Quirkville's signature sandwich at the newly christened SPLOINK CAFE, and again all is well in Quirkville.

It's a silly story, as befits one with kids, zombies, aliens, and sticky sandwiches, in this sequel to McGee's 2015 hit, Peanut Butter & Brains: A Zombie Culinary Tale (review here). As in the first book, author McGee gets a major culinary and artistic assist from illustrator Charles Santoso, whose comic drawings offer more fun with food for the primary reader. Kids who favor fantasy stories about aliens and zombies may want to get their sticky PB and J fingers on this one.