Quick story full of zombie puns. Probably best for ages 3-1/2 to 7. Fun for Halloweentime. Illustrations are very cute.

I loved the interesting and colorful illustrations in this book. And the play-on-words story was delightful. I think kids and parents both will enjoy this book, especially around Halloween.

This was the cutest children's book, my kids and I loved it! We love halloween and we love zombies so this was perfect for us. Perfect for Halloween time if you're looking for a good kids book.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for this ARC!

"Stompie the Zombie" has several puns that work very well in English, the language in which the book is written. My son is not bilingual, but he is quite familiar with the English language, and the phonetics are very natural to him. Of course, for a child who is native to an English-speaking Country, this book becomes even funnier.

But even if he doesn't get the puns, the whole story is very intriguing. Zombie is excited about meeting his family, after 500 years without seeing his relatives. On the title page there is an illustration of a wall, with portraits of these relatives, named one by one, so we already know who Zombie will meet and we get equally anxious for this reunion.

However, on the day of the party, while making the arrangements, Zombie has an accident and breaks his leg. Unable to walk, he is taken to a hospital to recover. Zombie gets very frustrated (and so did my son). But things turn out much better than expected in the end, because the party ends up bringing together even more people and fun, as well as much more goodwilled people to make things happen.

My son had been very worried that the party seemed like it wasn't going to happen, but it was with great relief and joy that he saw that in the end everything worked out so well. I think the story made him think that not everything is always as bad as it seems, and that if we are surrounded by the right people, good things will happen, because there are many supportive people. Friends and family, but also strangers.

In addition to Margery Cuyler's charming narrative, we have Binny Talib's illustrations, which are very colorful and cheerful, with a lot of contrast, which already gives the story an even more positive aspect, sending us the clue that we will have a happy ending.

By the way, the ending was also very funny and really surprised me.

The book will only be released on August 12, 2025, a few months before Halloween, which seems like a good opportunity to read this story, so you can plan to buy it in advance. But if you have a child at home like my son who likes to read stories with monster characters at any time of the year, it is also worth the recommendation.

We really liked it, and I am sure that reading it will bring out a lot of emotions in the children (and in the parents too).

Meet Stompie the Zombie, a creepy yet charming character who's excited for his first family reunion in 500 years!

My favorite parts from the story were the illustrations (which initially drew me to the book) and the clever use of puns. They were well thought out, funny, and showed real creativity.

I feel this book is more suited for school-age children, as the humor may be a bit complex for toddlers. While it would be perfect for story time if it rhymed, even without that, it's still an adorable story to enjoy with your little ones. Especially if they love the mix of creepy and cute themes.

This is such a fun book! I like how everything works out in the end, and the puns are hilarious. The art work was very colorful and interesting to look at as well. I wish this book had existed when I was a kid!

Stompie is really looking forward to his relatives coming to visit but his trip to the gross-ery store ends in disaster and he has to call the reunion off much to his disappointment.

The book has lovely illustrations and is full of puns to make the adults chuckle as they read this with their little ones.

It's a lovely story of hope, disappointment, perseverance and family love/bonds.

3.5 ⭐️

My 5 year old was really excited to read this book being drawn to the title and images on the cover.

Overall it was a cute story about Stompie the Zombie, which for my little boy, was right up his street. The pictures were super colourful and he did enjoy the book. Especially liking the family all swimming at the end.

At times however, the story felt a little hard for him to follow, without me explaining bits and there were lots of puns which whilst amusing, were too complex for him to understand. Aimed more for the adult reading, I suspect.
But he did like the book, and didn’t seem put off at all.


Thank you to NetGalley and Two Lions for this arc for my honest review.

This was absolutely adorable and super “pun”-ny!! I loved the illustration style - it was very engaging and very colorful. This is the perfect spooky season read. I could see the concept and some of the puns being a little too advanced for some of the younger readers but overall still a great read!

My daughter and I enjoyed reading this book, we thought the wording was fun and clever.
The illustrations were boo-tiful and very creative.
My daughter said that she highly recommends this book especially for a spooky occasion.
Its a book that she would read again.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing us to read and review this book.

this is adorable! perfect for fall (i can totally see this read again and again near halloween), this book’s illustration was to DIE for. i loved the textures, and each pages teems with things to look at.

the plays on words were also lovely (tomb-orrow, urgent scare, re-flesh-ments, “marrow escape” when discussing a broken bone). i can already feel the giggling from the kids reading and the fun brain-expansion pathways these cute puns open. a wonderful little book!

Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this book! Stompie's story is unique, fun, and perfectly spooky. This boook is perfect for young readers because there is a lot of familiar vocabulary, with some more complex words sprinkled throughout. Additionally, the plot made a lot of sense and was organized nicely. The illustrations were amazing! I love how the illustrator had a clear vision and conveyed that through a central color palette and drawing style. The creepy, quirky, and enjoyable theme of the book is mainly thanks to these illustrations. However, this tone is completed with the witty puns on nearly every page. My only critique for this is that little ones might not fully understand every joke. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of cleverly-placed jokes that will land nicely and have kids giggling as they read. But, some of the words are a little to complex/advanced and won't land quite as nicely. That aside, I generally really enjoyed this book!

Absolutely adorable! A shrieking good time and sweet story for the whole family. Stompie’s plans don’t exactly go to plan but the real surprise turns out to be more than he could hope for! I love the family dynamic and all the fun play on words. A perfect Halloween book for all.

I expected this to just be a cute hallowe'en read, but I actually think it would be fantastic for kids who need to be in the hospital.

"Stompie the Zombie" contains zany and fantastical illustrations, perfect for anyone who loves Halloween or the spookier characters in fiction. My only concern with the story was the over-abundance of puns. They were fun, do not get me wrong, but the amount caused the humor to dry up rather quickly. The color of the font also caused words to disappear into some of the illustrations, which cost one the ability to follow the entire plot. While whimsical in so many fun ways, I would have to pass on this title, but would love to see more from the author.

A funny punny book about a zombie who has an injury and also the support of his zombie family. Stompie plans a family reunion and then almost misses it due to an injury. His family comes together to make it all work out in the end.

The illustrations in this were incredibly bright and fun! My 2.5 yo made me read this to her 3 times in a row! This book was a hit with all of the super natural beings (my child lovesssss Halloween). I plan to purchase her a physical copy so she can flip through it as much as she wants. The story was so fun and fantatical. I’d say this is probably best for ages 3-5 but it wasn’t too much for my 2.5 yo since she was very interested in the pictures.

This one is too cute! All of the punny names were perfect; “urgent scare”, “gross-ery store”, “squeal chair” (to name a few).

Synopsis: Stompie just wants a fun family reunion (because he hasn’t seen his family in 500 years)! When he gets injured, he thinks the reunion is no longer going to work out, and he’s very disappointed. Things definitely turn around thanks to Itchy Witchy!

Review: I definitely want to buy this book for my toddler when it releases! I also want to buy a few copies for my friends and their kids! My only complaint is that the story doesn’t overall rhyme, and my brain wanted it to as I read it.

Definitely don’t miss out on Stompie the Zombie! Grab it for a little one near you. 🫶🏼

Thank you to NetGalley & Two Lions Publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Releases August 12, 2025!

Thank you so much to Two Lions and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Stompie is having a long overdue family reunion, but as he goes to get his supplies for the party, he hurts himself landing him in the hospital. He deems his reunion ruined and thinks he won’t see his family now, but a surprise is in store for him.

This was hilarious, utterly hilarious. It was full of puns and played on the words, it was such an amazingly hilarious book. I loved seeing the changed words to suit the characters in the book, it really made it so much funnier and added so much to the book.

We had such an array of characters from zombies, to vampires, to witches, I really loved seeing them all come together within this book. Poor Stompie, breaking his leg the way he did, it looked painful. The illustrations and story work perfectly together seeing the story unfolding and all the characters, I also loved his zombie dog it was the cutest.

A hilarious and fun read perfect for young ones to enjoy, to also a great book if you like to read books with slightly creepy characters in or like to read specifically for Halloween, either way this works perfectly for a general read or a Halloween read.

Such a cute story! My son giggled so hard reading this and he was so interested in it! Super super cute!