Johnson, Rebecca L. Zombie Makers. Millbrook
Press/21st Century/Copper Beech 48p $24.06 978-0-7613-8633-9 2013 ms E-BN Nonfiction
With its
creepy cover the color of blood red, this book looks like a perfect choice for
Halloween night! What the reader finds
inside will be a surprise, even a shock!
Certain creatures reside within us, and after reading this book, even
the science lover will be
squeamish. For example, one learns that
one-fourth of all humans carry a T gondii parasite inside our brains. T gondii
is the parasite that pregnant women must be wary of when changing their cat’s
litter box. Rabies and worms are other
conditions that affect humans. Both are
described in bone-chilling detail. Creatures that attack and infect can feast on
their hosts, but do not always kill them immediately; an example is the
jewel wasp, who
lays her eggs in the body
of a cockroach, and the eggs sip its blood and feed on
its organs. With details such as these,
the world of science becomes very interesting to the young reader who craves
all of the gory details! The book’s
design is bold and the layout is smooth and alluring. “Twilight
Zone” meets a zombie movie in the
introduction to each chapter, and the writing style continues throughout each
upbeat and informative chapter. The
photographs provide a surreal look into the world of parasites. Rebecca Johnson researched this book all over
the world, and the reader reaps the benefits of her thorough investigation of just the right creatures to scare the pants
off a teenager! The oxymoron “disgusted fascination” comes to mind as the reader comes to the end of this book! The glossary is thorough, the bibliography is
extensive, and the list of websites directs young
readers to You Tube to witness action shots.
Zombies -–Martha Squaresky
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