Peanut Butter & Brains: A Zombie Culinary Tale - Hardcover

Joe McGee is the author of the picture book Peanut Butter & Brains (Abrams 2015), of which Kirkus Reviews said “Run, don’t shamble to get this original zombie tale.” The New York Times praised it for “amusingly unit[ing] the seemingly unrelated contemporary obsessions of zombies and food,” and The Washington Post noted “Joe McGee keeps the story moving with flowing and engaging text.” Aliens and Jelly, a follow up to Peanut Butter and Brains, is scheduled for Fall 2017. Abrams will be publishing a third, as yet untitled, picture book in Fall 2018.

McGee’s writing has garnered many awards, including the 2014 Vermont College of Fine Arts Holy Smokes! short story award; the 2013 Vermont College of Fine Arts Critical Essay award; and a Vermont College of Fine Arts merit scholarship. Bestselling author and Printz Honoree, A.S. King, called McGee’s young adult short story, Leaves of Brass, “one of the best short stories” she’d ever read. National Book Award finalist and Newberry Honor recipient, Kathi Appelt, said his short story, Tooth Fairy, was “one of the most authentic child’s voices” she’d ever read.” McGee was the recipient of the 2012 Medallion Award for an outstanding graduate writing student at Rowan University, and the winner of the 2012 Denise Gess Literary Prize for Poetry. He was awarded 1st place honors in fiction, short story writing, YA/teen writing, and poetry from The Philadelphia Writers’ Conference. As well, McGee’s young adult short story, Ink Soul, won 2nd place in the 2011 national Writer’s Digest genre fiction awards. He has an MA in Writing, from Rowan University, and his MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

McGee teaches Creative Writing at Rowan University and is one of the core faculty launching the new Sierra Nevada College low-residency MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults beginning August 2016. McGee is a former airborne Army platoon leader, an amateur cartoonist, and the father of three boys, ages 15, 12, and 9. He lives in rural Pennsylvania, with a view of a centuries-old cemetery from his office window.
 
You can follow him on Twitter at @mcgeejp or visit his website at www.joemcgeeauthor.com

Charles Santoso is a concept artist and illustrator currently living in Sydney, Australia. His work has been exhibited in Australia, North America, and France.

Gr 1–3—As zombies ramble through the streets of an unnamed neighborhood searching for the elusive "brains" they crave, Reginald decides to be the rebel of the group and is instead on the lookout for a delicious... peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Reginald searches all day looking for what he wants until he finds it at a busy bus stop in the hands of a young girl. McGee's story has humor throughout (when he asks his lunch lady for a sandwich, she "slap(s) a hunk of meat loaf on his tray instead. It looked an awful lot like brains."). Santoso's watercolor and ink illustrations are a soothing, sometimes dull palette of blues and grays, creating a nice balance between silly and scary but never verging on frightening. Text and illustrations work well together to make an amusing read-aloud for older kids around Halloween time. The mustard yellow endpapers showcase the different cuisine options for the zombies, with speech bubbles filled with brains on the front and PB&J sandwiches in speech bubbles on the back, echoing the zombies' exclamations throughout the story. VERDICT A humorous, not too scary look at zombie culinary habits.—Christopher Lassen, Brooklyn Public Library