Rot and Ruin

Rot and Ruin, by Jonathan Maberry, is the first book in a series, though it reads well on its own. It's a coming-of-age story set 14 years after the Zombie apocalypse. In this story, the zombies are more of a backdrop to the dynamics of family and friendship, of growing up convinced of the rightness of your opinions and having experience cast those opinions into doubt.

The book focuses on 15 year old Benny Imura. Benny was only 18 months old on First Night, but he remembers the important part -- his dad reanimating, his mom handing him to his much older half-brother, Tom, and telling Tom to run. He even remembers what his mom was wearing -- a white blouse with red sleeves. And he remembers that Tom ran. He didn't help Benny's mom, not then, not ever. Benny hates him for that. Everyone in their new hometown of Mountainside thinks that Tom is some sort of super brave guy, but Benny knows the truth -- Tom is nothing but a coward. He's also a bounty hunter (he prefers the term "closure specialist") who kills zoms. He never talks about it, though, so Benny's pretty sure he does it in a cowardly way. Not like bounty hunters Charley Matthias and the Motor City Hammer. They're always talking about how they kill zoms, sometimes even going mano-a-mano! They're cool. They're real men. Not like Tom.

When, at 15, Benny has to get a job or have his rations cut in half, he ends up apprenticing to Tom. What he learns on that first "closure" gives him pause for thought. A mission to find a feral girl and shut down the infamous "Gameland" has him re-evaluating his most deeply held beliefs about Tom, about First Night, about what makes a monster -- and what makes a hero. Available in print, audio CD, and downloadable eBook, Rot and Ruin is a zombie novel well worth the read.

Benno and the Night of Broken Glass

It is a question as old as the 1940s -- how do you introduce young children to the horror of the Holocaust in a way they can understand, but that won't overwhelm them? In the picture book Benno and the Night of Broken Glass, Meg Wiviott answers this questions quite well. The story uses the conceit of telling about Benno the cat to introduce Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) and the beginning of the Holocaust. Events are described without explanation. Benno knows that people are less happy since the men in brown shirts showed up, but not why. He doesn't understand why Inge, (who gives him schnitzel after Sunday dinner) no longer walks to school or plays with Sophie (who gives him chicken after Sabbath supper).

Nor does he know why, one night, the men in brown shirts break into Moshe the butcher's shop and overturn his refrigerators. They rip up Mitzi Stein's fabric and throw the sewing machines at her dress shop into the street. They leave Herr Gerber's grocery alone. Hans the Hausmeister, who gives Benno fresh milk every night, lets the men in brown shirts into the apartment building and points out certain apartments. The men take away Professor Goldfarb. They break the furniture in Sophie's apartment, but not in Inge's. They even set fire to the beautiful Neue Synagogue. The next day, Benno waits for Sophie so he can walk to school with her, but she never comes out of her apartment.

Life goes on for cats, just as it does for children. Both, being powerless, must adjust. Benno still watches Inge's father leave for work. He still follows Inge to school. Frau Gerber still scratches his ears, and Hans still gives him fresh milk. But nothing is ever the same.

An afterword provides information on Kristallnacht, including the fact that few nations spoke out against the events, indicating to the Nazis that the world would tolerate such persecution. A bibliography giving sources and additional children's books about the Holocaust is included.

The book provides a good introduction to the topic for early elementary school age children, while leaving it to parents to determine the appropriate amount of background information and explanation to provide to an individual child.