This was an adorable book with cute illustrations. I know I've been referred to as a zombie a few times, and I love how everything was wrapped up in the end. It didn't quite rhyme at times, which might throw off kids reading it out loud expecting it to perfectly rhyme cover to cover.

A cute and fun children's book about a boy thinking his brother is a zombie after a strange encounter one night.
I am not the intended audience for this book but I did enjoy what I read and can see it being read to students or used in a classroom library.

Jarvy wonders throughout the day if his brother is a zombie because of the way he acts-he mumbles, has food splattered in his teeth, etc. But at the end of the day, there is a good explanation for why Josh is acting like that.
I asked for this ARC because my students love zombies, but I after I read it, I don't think my students will enjoy it as much as I thought. It wasn't very funny and the illustrations were very one note.

Jarvy and their pet cat Milo are afraid their brother is a zombie. This is a simple concept of one brother seeing another brother in different ways that all have to do with waking up in the morning. I do like the illustrations, but they tend to be a bit repetitive. This is because the background stays the same and they just change the font bubbles. Overall, it works. My favorite part was the fart. It feels like a first or second book which it says in the afterward that it is, but I think with practice the author will get better. The concept is fantastic and I can’t wait to see what else we get from the author.

This was such a silly and fun book that I think any child will enjoy - it is fun and whimsical while giving a unique story and the book itself is charming!

This book is very cute and fun. My 4 and 8 year old nephews liked this a lot! I would recommend this for any kid that likes the creepier things in life

After asking the question of “Is my brother a zombie?” for thirty-five pages, the story answers the question in two short pages. Leaving me the review to wonder if we really needed thirty-five pages to answer that question. I’m of the opinion of no… no we didn’t.

Aside from the asinine length of the story there is the issue of the artwork. I don’t think there’s a single aspect of the art that’s not a pre-rendered asset. Now I can’t say for 100% certainty that it’s a program with pre-rendered assets, but I’m pretty damn confident that most will agree when they look at the first page of the book. Because if it’s not pre-rendered art being moved around then the creator doesn’t understand angles, shadowing, and spacing. The wall perspective is going one direction, the bed is going in same direction to the left, but not the right. The nightstand dresser is just floating out away from the wall going in an entirely different perspective and then the alarm clock sitting on the dresser… is also facing a different perspective. The perspective is all completely different just within this one room.

The interesting part is that I’m reading this digitally and so I can flip through it quickly with a mouse. It’s damn near a frame-by-frame animation as the main character slowly moves their eyes and arm. Nothing else moves. Nothing else shifts. Not the coloring, not the shadowing, not the linework. Then we’re introduced to another bed in the room. Suddenly the same space is crammed tight with a second bed, but that bed constantly disappears when we return to the original scene with the bed. I can understand the bed not being there until it appears in the story, but it shouldn’t disappear after being introduced. There is not a single aspect of the artwork that is enjoyable or even helps the story. There is also the glaring inconsistency in the setting. The story begins with stars and a moon in the sky, but then when it journeys outside of the room it appears to be daytime. It flips back and forth which is confusing. Which is it? I know the answer, but the art should have been in line with the story and it’s not. It is unfortunately generic in every sense of the word.

Going back to the thirty-seven-page story, not once does it do a convincing job of making the reader think that the brother is a zombie. I’m not even convinced that the main character knows what a zombie is, and if he was sleeping next to one all night, I’d hope he’d be more cautious. The story tries some fart humor, but then decided to describe the fart like a camel’s bad breath. I think most people have smelled stinky breath and I think most everyone has smelled a fart. I don’t think anyone would rather smell a fart over stinky breath but that’s the comparison that the author inadvertently makes. There’s also the strange choice of writing “Fart” on the fart cloud, while also writing “they heard a very loud fart” on the same page. It’s fart overkill. Maybe if it was in a different font, or the cloud was in the shape of the fart, but then they couldn’t use that same pre-rendered asset for the camel’s breath that’s shown later.

Usually, I read kids’ books to my kids before reviewing them. Maybe my sons would have liked this story, but it’s not of a quality that I seek for my kids’ books. I like to give them stories with artwork that inspires their imaginations and helps tell the story visually for them. I like to give them stories that are either fun and entertaining for them to go through or so well-crafted that they want to revisit the story night after night. Is My Brother A Zombie did not do any of those things, which I think the author knows. That’s why a robot hunt was added to the book. To get the reader to engage more with the visuals of the story than the story itself. Is this book worth reading? No.

IS MY BROTHER A ZOMBIE? is a silly and fun story about a boy who wakes up to see his brother act like a zombie. The short story delivers what it wants to—childish humor. I personally think children would enjoy this book and have a good laugh with it.

Is My Brother a Zombie? by Steve Stables 📖

I read Is My Brother A Zombie? with my 3 year old daughter , and we both enjoyed it very much - so much that we decided to re-read it immediately after finishing. I’m a horror lover and she enjoys spooky and creepy aspects in stories, so this was right up our alley!

This book was a good time. It’s about a young boy, Jarvy who wakes up and believes that his brother, Josh, had turned into a zombie overnight. He and his cat, Milo, spend the entire book trying to figure out how such a thing could happen.

We found the story really enjoyable and funny while the conclusion was fun! There were multiple moments where I chuckled to myself while Blake laughed out loud. The illustrations were fairly basic but effective enough to help tell the story.

Also, there were robots scattered throughout the pages with the intention of counting them as we read, and that was a fun extra element on top of the story itself.

In comparison to other children’s books I’ve read over the years I would give this 3.5/5 stars, and I would recommend this to parents with children between the ages of 3 and 5.

I accessed this story via @netgalley. Thanks to the publisher, BooksGoSocial, for providing!

This was such a fun book! I definitely wasn't expecting that clever reveal. The rhymes are better than the ones in The Vampire's Missing Cape. I also loved the hidden robot activity. Kids will enjoy this one!

A fun, quirky children's book written in rhyme.
With bold, colourful illustrations and a dash of humour, young kids are bound to enjoy this storybook.

My only criticism is that some of the rhymes felt very forced and/or awkward.

I would recommend this book for ages 3 to 7.

Is My Brother A Zombie is a funny story about a boy who fears his brother has turned into a zombie overnight. It was a great little read that both myself and my 5 year old son enjoyed.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for my copy.

Cute little story about a boy who thinks his brother might be a zombie. (Who would have guessed that after reading the title?)
I liked the story and the rhymes but the illustration was not my taste. However I am sure children will love it!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Jarvy and Milo, his car, are awoken by scary noises coming from his brother, Josh, who's in his bed across the room. Josh then stands, arms outstretched, and wobbles out the room. Jarvy doesn't know what's wrong with Josh until he starts to wonder, could he have turned into a zombie?

This is a simple story that would be fine for young readers. The text is straightforward, however, the rhyming structure is inconsistent making it difficult to read aloud fluidly.

All of the imagery is bright yet flat-looking, caused by the clip art style used, so nothing particularly stands out. Each page shows the plot well but they feel static as little changes between each page; for example, only the contents of a thought bubble will be altered.

Throughout, there is the fun challenge of spotting a small robot illustration. This is nice, though it doesn't add anything to the story (although I recognise that isn't the point) and seems an outdated practice and one that's fallen out of fashion.

The topic and writing style make this ideal for reading to four to seven-year-olds. From the vocabulary used and how much of it is phonetically decodable, a child would be about seven years old to read this independently or with minimal support.

This was a very fun book, but also the illustrations felt very early 2000's, even down to the Comic Sans font. I liked the robot search that went alongside the actual story. My nephew liked the fart noises, of course.

This is a silly, funny picture book for kids who are interested in creepy things like zombies but aren't ready for anything too scary yet! Each pages has great pictures and a simple noun-verb sentence that will make this book accessible for many young readers. The font is also very clear and easy to read.

I could see young readers in Pre-K to Grade 2 enjoying this weird and silly picture book. I would definitely recommend it for families and teachers of children in this age range.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I was very intrigued to read this book as I loved the title and the blurb. I really enjoyed the story as it flowed and rhymed well and there was plenty of scope for using emotions in the voices and adding sound effects (I always read books outloud as I am a school librarian and I spend hours reading to groups of primary school children). I would read this to my Reception and Year 1 children as they would find the fart word hysterical. However, I was a little disappointed by the illustrations. When reading with groups of children, they love to explore the illustrations and I was excited to see the clock as I thought the hands of the clock would move with the story and we could talk about time. Unfortunately they didn't and the timeline jumped considerably from night (seen through the bedroom window) to morning. This jarred the storyline for me and I had to scroll back to check whether I had read it right. I did enjoy the added game of find and count the robots (but some were repeated on different pages). It's a shame the illustrations let the book down as I really enjoyed the story and am looking forward to reading more from Steve.

My son picked this book as he is going through a phase of playing zombies and he loved the book (he rates it 11/10) he found a lot of the illustrations eye-catching and found the rhymes and story really funny, and the story actually had him asking my questions about Josh and how he is a zombie etc, and I had to keep reminding him to read on.

From an adults perspective I found the plot reveal hilarious and absolutely resonates with a lot of kids with their daily routine, but I do agree with some other reviews that the rhymes are sometimes a bit of a reach, and some didn’t flow as well as others. Still a lovely little read, especially as it is developing my son’s reading ability

Poor rhymes and the pictures make no sense.

I really wanted this to be good! A great title and could have been very funny.

Sadly, I was very disappointed. It’s really hard to read aloud as a lot of the lines are different lengths, and the rhymes are rather pedestrian. I didn’t find it funny either, the point is that Big Brother is like a zombie until he wakes up later in the day.

Which doesn’t make sense as these two boys must share a bedroom every night.

And the pictures are very poorly thought through. It’s 10pm throughout even when it’s actually morning for the other character. There’s one bed in the bedroom. No, two. No, one. And what does the kitchen look like? It changes totally. I can see robots appearing and disappearing which I guess must mean something but have no idea what.

I’m never a fan of resorting to a ‘fart’ joke for no good reason or with no finesse either (can't see what this has to do with zombies).

The ending didn’t really raise a smile or give us anything, just that teenagers are a bit grumpy.

Sorry, I just felt this was a wasted opportunity and not well done.

With thanks to Netgalley for a sample reading copy.

This was a cute little story with fun rhymes and a hidden count the robot game mixed in. It would be a funny little book for a young audience and I can 100% related to his brother not being a morning person!