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reanimatedreader's review against another edition
5.0
Hilarious! Great nostalgia fest mixed with zombie tales and inappropriate paintings
lexiermh's review
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
barry_x's review against another edition
3.0
I received this as a gift and read it this morning during breakfast. This is an addition to the Ladybird Books for Adults series (Ladybird Books being short books published for children seemingly forever sometimes fiction and fairytales but more often non-fiction about a range of things).
The first thing to say is that the art direction is spot on. Like the books of childhood the text on the left hand side of the page is bold and clear, the full page art on the right hand side is amazing on every page. The style mirrors that of Ladybird books of old, lots of colour and everyone looks like they are from 1950. The writing style took me right back too with the simplistic sentence structure. My 6 year old is quite a good reader and he picked this off my shelf and dived in keenly - especially since the subject matter relates to a zombie apocalypse. There are corpses and blood letting on every page so it's perfect for a 6 year old! Of course I moved it to a higher shelf as it really isn't appropriate for kids ha ha...
The content takes all the old tropes of zombie fiction and presents it in a childlike manner. Is it funny? Well, not really. I did have a couple of smirks comparing the societal meltdown to 1970's Britain with a caustic dig at the industrial action of the decade.
Loved the artwork but doubt I will pick it up again. Charity shop for you zombies!
The first thing to say is that the art direction is spot on. Like the books of childhood the text on the left hand side of the page is bold and clear, the full page art on the right hand side is amazing on every page. The style mirrors that of Ladybird books of old, lots of colour and everyone looks like they are from 1950. The writing style took me right back too with the simplistic sentence structure. My 6 year old is quite a good reader and he picked this off my shelf and dived in keenly - especially since the subject matter relates to a zombie apocalypse. There are corpses and blood letting on every page so it's perfect for a 6 year old! Of course I moved it to a higher shelf as it really isn't appropriate for kids ha ha...
The content takes all the old tropes of zombie fiction and presents it in a childlike manner. Is it funny? Well, not really. I did have a couple of smirks comparing the societal meltdown to 1970's Britain with a caustic dig at the industrial action of the decade.
Loved the artwork but doubt I will pick it up again. Charity shop for you zombies!
stuedb's review against another edition
4.0
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14341136
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14341136
narflet's review against another edition
3.0
I don't think these adult ladybird books are as funny as they think they are but this one gets an extra star for featuring a lovely painting of Coventry. 😅
fantasy_freak's review
dark
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
skyfox24kd's review against another edition
4.0
Thoroughly amusing....! I did not know what these were. My husband was putting away some of his books and handed that to me and said his sister got it for him one year as a stocking stuffer. I looked at it and obviously had to read it!
Now i will keep a look out for these. I love the originals that i have seen.
Now i will keep a look out for these. I love the originals that i have seen.
jens_bookshelves's review against another edition
3.0
Received as a gift, a fun little read for zombie lovers.
captainfez's review
4.0
This is going to be a short review, which is fitting as the book is short. An amuse l'Å“il, if you like.
It pretty much does what you'd expect from the title: it's a pisstake of the Ladybird books, a series of books aimed at improving kids' reading abilities. Widely used in the '60s and '70s, these books covered all sorts of topics and were illustrated in a very painterly manner.
The Ladybird Book of the Zombie Apocalypse is part of a series - featuring entries on hangovers and hipsters - released in response to an art gallery spoof of the original books. (Which Penguin went after, natch.)
The new range features illustrations culled from original Ladybirds, paired with new text. The book reads pretty much as you'd expect it to, and it's pretty delightful - death is all around and approached with the same vocabulary-widening neutrality as a kids' Ladybird - except for a bit of a dodgy entry displaying what's presumably Native Americans as Zombies.
Still, it's a bit of a treat to see commercial illustration like this being brought back into the mainstream. It's a very specific style that's been lost over the decades, and its inclusion is, perhaps more than the tee-hee-zombies aspect of the work - the real reason to give this a read.
This review has probably taken you longer to read than the book will. Hopefully you can spare the time to give it a whirl, too.
It pretty much does what you'd expect from the title: it's a pisstake of the Ladybird books, a series of books aimed at improving kids' reading abilities. Widely used in the '60s and '70s, these books covered all sorts of topics and were illustrated in a very painterly manner.
The Ladybird Book of the Zombie Apocalypse is part of a series - featuring entries on hangovers and hipsters - released in response to an art gallery spoof of the original books. (Which Penguin went after, natch.)
The new range features illustrations culled from original Ladybirds, paired with new text. The book reads pretty much as you'd expect it to, and it's pretty delightful - death is all around and approached with the same vocabulary-widening neutrality as a kids' Ladybird - except for a bit of a dodgy entry displaying what's presumably Native Americans as Zombies.
Still, it's a bit of a treat to see commercial illustration like this being brought back into the mainstream. It's a very specific style that's been lost over the decades, and its inclusion is, perhaps more than the tee-hee-zombies aspect of the work - the real reason to give this a read.
This review has probably taken you longer to read than the book will. Hopefully you can spare the time to give it a whirl, too.