One of the things I’ve been most keen to do since beginning my full time career as an author is to encourage young people (and particularly boys) to read more. As such, I have long been a fan of the Barrington Stoke titles, written for less able and more reluctant readers. I hadn’t realised that Tommy was writing a title for them. Typically, his chosen subject was zombies … but you could probably have guessed it would be something like that, I’m sure.

As with Tommy’s Scream Street books, Zombie wonderfully crosses the horror genre with the comic, this time in even more straightforward language (but without losing any of the pace and humour – how does he do it?). The moment this book arrived, I devoured it in about 20 minutes. It’s a delightful story that will be of particular interest to schools and parents that are looking to encourage their reluctant boy readers to enjoy a whole book (without it being a chore). I have to say that until I started reading Tommy Donbavand’s books, I’d never considered things like losing a leg to be a laughing matter. Somehow, though, Tommy has a way of making the gruesome into the comic in a way that will delight young lads and have them coming back to the library for more and more. Another fantastic story.