The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Undead - Softcover

Borchert, Don

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0765327295 ISBN 13: 9780765327291

Publisher: Tor Books, 2010

Synopsis

Mark Twain once said "The rumors of my death were greatly exaggerat―BRAINS!!!!!"

Pulled from the grip of Mark Twain's rotting zombie hands, is Tom Sawyer like you've never seen him before, in a swashbuckling, treasure-seeking adventure, spiked with blood, gore, and zombie madness.

In this expanded and illustrated edition of Mark Twain's beloved tale of boyhood adventures, Tom's usual mishaps are filled with the macabre and take place in a world overrun by a zombie virus that turns people into something folks call "Zum." The United States is infected with a plague of rotting, yet spry, Zum, searching for fresh meat.

In this world, there's no need to whitewash Aunt Polly's fence. Instead, Tom cons his friends into sharpening fence posts to lethal points to repel a Zum attack. To escape the boredom of civilized life, Tom and his pal Huckleberry Finn don't have to fake their deaths, just pretend to be Zum. And instead of playing cowboys and Indians, Tom hones his fighting skills in a bloodthirsty game of "Us and Zum." He always wins . . . until he bumps into the real thing.

When vicious, self-aware zombies evolve and threaten the town . . . what will Tom and Huck do to protect their loved ones, and will they live to tell the tale?

With all the comedy, romance, and adventure that readers expect from Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer now becomes a new breed of hero for a whole new world―a grade-A zombie hunter.

About this title

About the Author

Don Borchert, a long-serving assistant librarian in the suburban California public library system, is the author of Free for All (Virgin Books, 2007) and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Undead (Tor Books, 2010). Borchert is a popular lecturer on the library circuit and in 2008 he was keynote speaker for the American Library Association (ALA) national convention as well as for the Missouri Library Association and Nevada Library association.

From School Library Journal

Gr 6-8–Borchert's adaptation of the classic tale offers very little in the way of new twists and turns. All of the memorable moments and characters of the original story are here–Huckleberry Finn, Aunt Polly, Becky Thatcher, Injun Joe. Readers follow them through the well-known story. That is actually the strength of the book. Unfortunately, credit for great storytelling goes to Twain. Borchert's introduction of zombies, which are called the “Zum,” is his major contribution to the novel, and he fails to give sufficient background about them. They are introduced sporadically and with little lasting effect. The concept for the book is an interesting one, but the author fails to stray very far from the trusted script of Twain and take advantage of uncharted waters.Greg Stone, Oak Mountain Middle School, Birmingham, AL
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0765327295
• ISBN 13: 9780765327291
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304