Hoena, A. Zombified: Volume Nine

Hoena, A.   Zombified: Volume Nine  Capstone/Stone Arch     2013  128p  ISBN 978-1-4342-3840-5    series: Tony Hawk’s 900 Revolution  ms/hs Hardback    VG  Sports 

When Omar wakes up, he finds that five years have elapsed since he fell asleep. Mix this Rip Van Winkle scenario with a post-apocalyptic world and you have a new tale for this volume of the Tony Hawk’s 900 Revolution series. Omar sets out to find his friends of “The Revolution” and realizes that the world is now filled with zombies and animals who have been transformed into fierce demons. Omar holds a wheel of the famous Tony Hawk skateboard that flames blue when attached to his normal skateboard and allows all sorts of magic power to emanate.  He meets up with a few of his friends and they decide to battle once again “The Collective”, which has the remaining pieces of the Tony Hawk board. If the entire board can be assembled, life will drastically change. Omar’s plan is to “go big or go home”, as the saying goes.  Readers will find plenty of biker and boarder action as well as the gruesomeness of zombies and supernatural creatures.  And, sure enough, the last chapter hints at a future adventure for “The Revolution.” Mixed into the text are 16 pages of a graphic novel that fits neatly into the plot of the book. Readers new to the series will realize they need to read previous books to get the full meaning of some events in the story. This is a Hardy Boys series for today’s generation.

Tony Hawk’s 900 Revolution combines the X-Games sports of biking, skating and snowboarding into fast-paced action adventures, each of which include a 16-page graphic novel that fits easily into the story line, for grades 5-9.  It is recommended wherever other Tony Hawk’s 900 Revolution books are popular.  The only problem with purchasing this book as a stand-alone is that readers will clamber for the previous books in the series and the remainder of the series yet to be published. 

Summary: Easy reading adventure mixes X-Games-style skateboarding/biking with zombies to create an intense drama of the X-Gamers battling “The Collective” for world domination.  Text, along with 16 pages of graphic novel illustrations, equal a hit for series fans in grades 5-9.

Fantasy, Sports, Extreme sports                                   --Lois McNicol