Buttercup Sunshine and the Zombies of Dooooom

Written and illustrated by Colin Mulhern

Cover by Risa Rodil

160 pages

Published by Maverick Arts Publishing

Publication date: 28th September 2018

Summary (from Goodreads):

Briar’s Cove is famous for being the nicest, safest, sweetest place there ever was, where nothing bad ever happens. Buttercup Sunshine lives in Briar’s Cove with her Granny Fondant but when a fallen star causes the dead to rise from their graves, they band together to stop them. How can Buttercup and Granny knit their way out this one?

“This is the nicest, safest, sweetest place there ever was, where nothing bad ever happens. We’re famous for it!”

Buttercup’s eyes were very nearly bursting with horror.

“Things have changed, Granny. We need to jam this door shut. And the same with the windows.’ She looked about, as if searching the room for something. “Have you got anything we could use as weapons?

This is the perfect read for Hallowe’en!

The story starts when Granny Fondant sees her granddaughter running towards her cottage carrying …a chainsaw!

Things get even stranger when Buttercup Sunshine, the happiest, shiniest, girl in Briar’s Cove, tells granny that something bad has happened, in a place where nothing bad has ever happened before. A meteorite has hit the Forgotten Graveyard, bringing all those buried there back to live as zombies who want nothing more than to eat everyone’s brains.

Sunshine Buttercup has her investigation skills, plus a pamphlet prepared by her teacher showing what to do in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Granny Fondant has knitting needles and a lot of wool. What could they possibly do to escape from the zombies?

“Zombies?”

Mr Blackberry seemed to take an age to form the words.

“But zombies aren’t real. Zombies are monsters that crawl out of graves and eat brains, whereas what we have here…”

he drifted off and took another look as more of the ghastly, ghoulish creatures crawled their way to the surface.

“Oh” said Mr Blackberry.

And somewhere, there was the distinct sound of a penny dropping.

What I liked: The relationship between Buttercup and her grandmother, a granny as a kick-ass main character, the quirky humour, the illustrations which really add to your enjoyment of the text.

Even better if: Perfect just as it is!

How you could use it in your classroom: This would be a good recommendation for any fans of Roald Dahl, David Walliams or Andy Stanton (Mr Gum) due to the quirky, dark humour. It is also a very accessible text because of the spacing between the text and the illustrations so this might be a good recommendation for any reluctant readers or those lacking in confidence.

(Thank you to Maverick Arts for my review copy)

While you’re here, why not check out my reviews of Amelia Fang and the Barbaric Ball, Dino Wars, The Company of Eight, Shadow Weaver or How to Catch a Witch?

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Thanks for reading!