The Reading Dead: Zombie Fun for All Ages

Zombies are a Halloween staple. However, the living undead aren’t exactly child-friendly, what with the clamoring for brains and terrorizing of cities — not to mention all that rotting flesh. But do zombies have to be scary? Of course not! Below are books that range from funny to frightening. These are for kids of all ages — and all those zombie-loving kids at heart. To find books about zombies, try a subject search of “juvenile literature” combined with a keyword search of “zombie,” “undead,” or other scary words.

Picture Books

Crow, Kristyn.
Zombelina. 2013.
Zombelina loves to dance—but she gives her dance class, full of “real” girls, the spooks. Will Zombelina battle stage fright and make her ghoulish family proud at the big recital?
[SSHEL S COLLECTION SE.C8854z]

Harris, Monica A.
Wake the Dead. 2004.
Henry has been warned: if he makes too much noise, he will wake the dead. He didn’t listen—now he has to find a way to put them back to sleep!
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. H242w]

Kutner, Merrily.
The Zombie Nite Café. 2007.
A boy and his dog take a rhyming excursion and encounter funny monsters—and their favorite delicacies—at the Zombie Nite Café.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION SE. K969z]

San Souci, Robert D.
The Faithful Friend. 1995.
In this classic tale from Martinique, two friends encounter love, zombies, and danger.
[CCB AND SSHEL S COLLECTION SE. Sa58f]

Beginner and Intermediate Books

Bolger, Kevin.
Zombiekins. 2008.
Stanley Nudelman buys a weird stuffed animal at the yard sale of a woman rumored to be a witch, and now he and his friend Miranda have to save their classmates from becoming zombies.
[CCB and SSHEL S COLLECTION S. B6379z]

Doyle, Bill
The Zombie at the Finish Line. 2013.
Patsy the Zombie can’t seem to keep her head on her shoulders for a whole track-and-field day, but her team helps her realize that everyone has their own special skills.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. D772z]

Holt, K. A.
Brains for Lunch: A Zombie Novel in Haiku?! 2010.
Zombie Loeb likes haikus—and his living classmate, Siobhan. The story of his middle school cafeteria, filled with mythical monsters, is a funny tale told in verse.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. H7425b]

Moskowitz, Hannah.
Zombie Tag. 2011.
Wil is desperate for his older brother to return from the dead. The thing is, zombies don’t make the best siblings.
[CCB AND SSHEL S COLLECTION S. M8532z]

Nickel, Scott.
Invasion of the Gym Class Zombies. 2008.
Trevor has some experience fighting zombies—but he thought those days were over. Now he has to rescue his whole gym class from the evil Mr. Brawnium, who wants all his students to be zombified jocks.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. 741.5973. N532i]

Savage, J. Scott.
Zombie Kid. 2013.
Both funny and scary, when an amulet turns Nick into a zombie, it sets him on a quest to defeat the zombie king.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. Sa926z]

Whitehouse, Howard.
Zombie Elementary: The Real Story. 2014.
Larry Mullet is an average fourth-grade boy. He is also a zombie hunter. Larry lays down the truth about what happened at his elementary school after a classmate tries to take a bite out of him. “Fun facts” and tips are included.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. W5877z]

Intermediate and Teen Books

Ford, Michael Thomas.
Z. 2010.
In the year 2032, after a virus that turned people into zombies has been eradicated, Josh joins an underground gamer society where the goal is to hunt zombies.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. F754z]

Garner, Em.
Contaminated. 2013.
Velvet fights for her family’s survival after a trendy diet drink turns many people—including her mother—into violent, zombie-like creatures.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. G1862c]

Harris, Carrie.
Bad Taste in Boys. 2011.
Future doctor Kate must find an antidote to the zombie steroids the football coach is giving to his players.
[CCB AND SSHEL S COLLECTION S. H2404b]

Hart, Jeff.
Eat, Brains, Love. 2013.
Teen zombies Jake and Amanda are on the run from Cass, a psychic working with the government to hide the existence of the undead.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. H2515e]

Higson, Charlie.
The Fear. 2012.
After a worldwide sickness turns everyone over the age of sixteen into zombies, Dognut and his crew embark on a deadly mission to find missing friends and avoid the bloodthirsty adults.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S.H539f]

Lackey, Mercedes.
Dead Reckoning. 2012.
In 1867 Texas, Jett, a girl passing as a boy, seeks her long-lost twin brother and investigates a zombie army that is terrorizing the West.
[CCB AND SSHEL S COLLECTION S. L118d]

McKay, Kirsty.
Undead. 2012.
On a school trip to snowy Scotland, several students become infected with a zombie virus while the remaining survivors take refuge in a school bus.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. M4599un]

Perez, Marlene.
Dead is a Battlefield. 2012.
Poor Jessica Walsh is just trying to survive Nightshade High—but what to do when she finds out that one of her classmates is turning girls into love sick zombies?
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. P415db]

Summers, Courtney.
This is Not a Test. 2012.
Sloane doesn’t want to survive the zombie attacks—but she’s trapped at school with five people who do. As time passes, the group becomes more unpredictable and violent in their fight for life.
[CCB AND SSHEL S COLLECTION S. Su645t]

Unsworth, Tania.
The One Safe Place. 2014.
Devin lives in a futuristic world of greed. He is relieved when he earns a coveted spot in a home for children, where there is always enough food and he is promised a new family, but when he starts investigating the zombie-like sickness afflicting the children, the terror begins.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. Un79o]

Waters, Daniel.
Generation Dead. 2008.
When dead teens don’t stay dead, they have to go to school. When living Phoebe starts dating “living impaired” Tommy, they face prejudice and fear.
[SSHEL S COLLECTION S. W315g]