In the Children’s Department in the Pine Bush Library we have the first four volumes of The Last

Kids on Earth series. They are the New York Times bestselling series, by Max Brallier and

illustrated copiously by Douglas Holgate. Our books include The Last Kids on Earth and the

same title repeated with And the Zombie Parade (number 2), and the Nightmare King

(number 3), and the Cosmic Beyond (number 4.)

This series is for middle school students, or for younger readers, and includes Parker Middle

School where June Del Toro is hiding out, waiting for her parents to return and find her. The

zombies and other monsters had sprung up out of nowhere one day, just as school was letting

out.

Meanwhile, Our Hero, Jack Sullivan, is living in a tree house which is surrounded by a moat,

which somehow protects him from (you guessed it) the zombie hoard. Jack stumbles upon

June, his old friend, and they also find Quint Baker, Jack’s best friend, and Dirk Savage, the

school bully, who has battled the zombies and decides to stop being a bully, and to join forces

with the other kids.

The books are like a manic video game in which Our Hero must find his friends, enlist allies,

collect a few friendly monsters, and basically save the world. One of the allies is from another

dimension, and resembles Obi-Wan Kenobi. When things start to calm down, new villains

arrive.

Meanwhile, June is no push-over. She grabs Jack by his shirt front and says, “I am NO damsel in

distress,” and you’ve got to believe her. Later she’s up on the roof of the neighbor’s house,

waving a weapon and shrieking, “Hey, Monsterface! Get a life!” and this attracts the monsters

and things get busy.

These books have pictures on every page. They are not graphic novels but they are heavy on

the illustrations and light on the text. So middle school students who don’t like to read will

probably be attracted. There are not so many boring old words to plow through, for people

who don’t normally like books. The illustrator has pulled out all the stops with pictures of

oversized monsters, zombie hoards, and our four heroes. It’s a fast and furious series for kids

from fourth grade on up. Come and check out the series, downstairs in our Children’s

Department.