I just got back from a camping trip, in which I read most of this:
My Rotten Life: Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie.
My kids and I haven't read a book together in a couple of months--we just haven't been in the mood. So, we picked something on the short side for the car ride to the campground, and at first we were dubious but we've ended up all four of us laughing out loud at Nathan's mishaps with the zombie-inducing chemistry experiment gone wrong.
Our initial dubiousness stemmed from two things: (a) I don't like zombies, and (b) my kids don't buy into the whole school-cliques/bullies set-up. Maybe kids who go to school relate to it? But to my homeschooled kids it's a total cliche, mostly found in cartoons, and they're sick of it. Once we got to the action, though, they got really hooked in and my 13-year-old kept picking up the book to read ahead every time I set it down. This did not add to the brotherly love, but I think it says a lot for a book aimed at 9-12 year olds.
Here's what I didn't read on the camping trip:
I'm in the middle of Monica Roe's Thaw, the fictional account of a teen boy recovering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes temporary paralysis. The thing about Dane is, he's a real jerk. Pretty sure there's a transformation happening, but in the meantime, he's just not that much fun to hang out with. So, I brought him along camping, but I made him sit in my backpack the whole time. Now that I'm home, I'm looking forward to picking it up again, in hopes that Dane will redeem himself.
