Review for Tales Told Under the Covers

Liz Barone has a lovely review of Tales Told Under the Covers up:

Tales Told Under the Covers features ten short stories for middle graders, but they definitely entertained me on an adult level. I liked that almost every main character had some sort of problem that all kids have, and that they resolved those problems after overcoming things so fantastical, the adults in their lives wouldn’t believe them if they hadn’t been there, too. These kids rolled with the punches and took things into their own hands when the grownups were too scared to move. These kids were underdogs — like I was as a kid. They inspired bravery and made me laugh out loud. The stories themselves are a blast, even at their creepiest; De has the coolest imagination.

Take Neil, the hero of “Zombie Girl Invasion.” He thinks girls are gross, and he likes running around pretending to shoot things. He gets in trouble all the time for being too loud while pretending to shoot zombies. When the zombies invade for real, he has to save his parents and help a zombie girl. I’ve noticed that zombies are becoming more and more popular, which is cool but also a little unnerving, because no one wants to see zombies become nauseating the way vampires and werewolves have. De’s zombies are so hardcore, they even eat each other. No one is safe, and that’s just the way I like it.

That’s right…it’s no fair if the zombies can’t get eaten 🙂