Skip to main content

Zombie Baseball Beatdown

By
Zombie Baseball Beatdown
by Paolo Bacigalupi
Little, Brown, and Company, 2013.  292 pgs. Horror

     More than the zombies take a beating in Bacigalupi's first book for younger readers.  His hit list includes meat processing plants who exploit their workers and put consumer safety last; high-priced, slick-as-snakes lawyers; current immigration law and ignorant public opinion. Rabinadrath Chaterjee-Jones (aka Rabi) plays baseball on a team with friends Miguel and Joe, and enemies Sammy and Bart. Sammy's dad owns Milrow Meats where almost everyone in town works. Mysterious really bad smells having been coming from the factory lately, and some workers seem very fearful.  Others, like Miguel's parents, and then his aunt and uncle, have been deported. Soon Miguel and Rabi are being chased by their zombified baseball coach and then by zombie cows, mooing for brains. Worse still, the boys sneak into the Milrow factory where the zombie cows are being chopped into hamburger and shipped out, their still-animate heads left behind. As you can tell, Zombie Baseball Beatdown is not for the faint of stomach, though I know a number of young boys who will relish the gore (you'll excuse the expression) and learn important lessons about fairness and honor. Bacigalupi spends a bit too much time grinding his own axes (another expression you'll need to excuse) about immigration, food safety, and big corporations who care only for money--the kids will get it sooner than he thinks they will--but this is still a quick, sometimes funny version of the zombie apocalypse as it plays out in Middle America.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: A Game of Noctis

By
A Game of Noctis By Deva Fagan New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2024. Fiction. 310 pages. On the island of Dantessa, social standings and wealth are determined by your place in the Great Game. If you keep on winning, you can reap treasures, power, and security for yourself and your family; but if you lose too many games, you'll be exiled to Pawn Island and a life of servitude. That's what happens to 12-year-old Pia's grandfather. Due to poor vision, he struggles to see the games, but also can't afford new eyeglasses without winning. When his score falls to zero, he is sent away. Desperate to bring him back, Pia joins a ragtag group of misfits to form a team for the annual game of Noctis. The game requires contestants to perform dangerous challenges in front of a live audience, and no one outside the wealthy Diamond District has ever won. Each member of Pia's team, the Seafoxes, has their own reason to compete, but if they're going to win they'll h...
Post a Comment
Read more

DISPLAY: The Day of the Dead

By DeeDee
Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos is a lively holiday that is observed in Mexico and some other Central and South American countries each year in November. It honors and celebrates family members past and present. Celebrate Day of the Dead with Paper Crafts By Randel McGee Enslow Elementary, 2015. informational Learn to make a skull mask, a skeleton candy basket, fancy cut-paper window banners, and more as you explore the important symbols of Day of the Dead. Day of the Dead  By Linda Lowery Carolrhoda Books, 2004. Informational This colorful informational book introduces the holiday, Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, and describes how it is celebrated in Mexico and in the United States. Just in Case  By Yuyi Morales Roaring Book Press, 2008. Picture Book As Senor Calavera prepares for Grandma Beetle's birthday he finds an alphabetical assortment of unusual presents, but with the help of Zelmiro the Ghost, he finds the best gift of all. Ghosts...
Post a Comment
Read more