"No Zombies Allowed" by Matt Novak

Sometimes I think it's important to pick out books and read them to your students just because they are fun, entertaining books. "No Zombies Allowed" is one of those books. I chose this book to read with *Trey (reading buddy) because it was a day before Halloween and I knew that the kids were all very excited about their costumes and trick or treating. This book is about two ladies that throw an annual Halloween party and they are preparing for this years party. They find pictures of zombies, werewolves, witches, ghosts, vampires and other creatures "ruining" the party by doing various things. Such as the zombies drop their eyes into the punch bowl or the ghosts moaned and groaned about everything. So the two ladies decide to be more careful about who they invite this year. Eventually they find a picture of two witches that looks oddly familiar. They realize that all of the pictures were really their friends dressed up in costumes, and that they too had dressed up as witches the previous year. They remember how much fun the party was last year and decide to let everyone come to the party. I like this book because it can show kids that sometimes people may be dressed up in scary costumes and act kind of funny (in character) but that it is just a costume and they are doing it for the fun of Halloween.

When I read this to Trey* he started to catch on, and he predicted that these were all the friends dressed up in different costumes. Overall, this is a fun, festive book that kids will enjoy because it talks about all the different Halloween creatures and what kinds of "vile" actions each does. It's important to sometimes choose books like these because we need to remember for ourselves and for our students that we should all read for enjoyment sometimes too.