My kids loved this silly story of a zombie that would much rather eat peanut butter sandwiches than brains.

Summary:

Reginald is a zombie who craves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches instead of brains, and feels misunderstood by the other zombies who only want brains to eat. Reginald finally snatches Abigail Zink's peanut butter and strawberry sandwich but instead of eating it himself, he throws it to the horde of fellow zombies who followed him to Abigail. They fall in love with the food and turn into model citizens, helping clean the town in exchange for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Meanwhile, Reginald turns his focus to pizza!

Personal Commentary/ Reflection:

The cartoon illustrations and creative theme are fun- reminds me of cartoon shows I watched on TV as a kid! The zombies are blue skinned and the way they decide to help clean up the town and be paid in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches gives the book a light hearted spin. This would be a good book for younger readers who are just developing their palette. I remember totally loving PB&J as a kid and wanting nothing else! I like the design theme of the book as well, for example the zombies only talk in all capital letters and the text changes size to help show emotion behind the language. ( )

The book Peanut Butter and Brains is the story of a small zombie who, unlike all the other zombies, enjoyed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches rather than brains. Once he is able to obtain a peanut butter and jelly sandwich he feeds it to other zombies. The other zombies fall in love with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and start to crave them rather than brains. The zombies and towns people then begin to live in harmony with one another. The big idea of the story is that no one group are all exactly the same; people everywhere are different. In my opinion I found this book to be a great read, particularly for a third grade level reader. The reason for this is just the creativeness of the story line, the somewhat advanced diction, and visuals of the book (text and illustrations). The story line is by far original. Rather than people v people, it’s people v zombies! The author begins the story with “Reginald was not like other zombies. The other zombies wanted brains for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But not Reginald.” Just the character name, Reginald, is enough for me to see this as being creative. The author continues to say “all he could do was dream about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. ‘Sweet jelly…’ moaned Reginald. ‘Sticky peanut butter…’”. The author is developing a story line about a zombie that craves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but her main character can only convey his ideas through moaning. The book’s creativity that serves as a good motivator to keep readers’ attentions. The diction in this book is also somewhat creative and different than what is found in an average picture book. Words such as shambled, grocery, prancing, shuffled, lurched, seized, etc. These words would work best with third graders looking to improve vocabulary and specifically more descriptive action verbs and adjectives. And finally, the boom provides excellent visuals. This is seen both in text and illustrations. Illustrations provide lively scenes with similar color patterns throughout the book. Illustration’s point of view adjusts throughout the book so one second you are far from a character and the next you are right in their face. However, the text has a visual aspect as well. Whenever something is said loudly the author increases the size of the text. The text is also scattered into small segments throughout the book. One passage may be on the top of an illustration while another is below or on it. ( )