When I run across the occasional ignoramus who ridicules my job as a genre fiction book reviewer and online book club moderator, it doesn’t anger me as much as make me deeply saddened. I mean, isn’t the magnitude of reading (and being able to read) blatantly obvious in our society? Just look at some of these jaw-dropping statistics:
• The educational careers of 25 to 40 percent of American children are imperiled because they don't read well enough, quickly enough, or easily enough.
• Since 1983, more than 10 million Americans reached the 12th grade without having learned to read at a basic level – in the same period, more than six million Americans dropped out of high school altogether.
• It is estimated that more than $2 billion is spent each year on students who repeat a grade because they have reading problems.
• More than 20 percent of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level – far below the level needed to earn a living wage.
• Approximately 50 percent of the nation's unemployed youth (age 16-21) are functional illiterate, with virtually no prospects of obtaining good jobs.
• 44 million adults in the U.S. can't read well enough to read a simple story to a child.
• 21 million Americans can't read at all, 45 million are marginally illiterate and one-fifth of high school graduates can't read their diplomas.
• 50 percent of American adults are unable to read an eighth grade level book.
I would go as far to say that reading – and sharing with our children that love of reading – may be one of the most important things we ever do.
That said, I read a fantastic new book for middle-grade readers (ages 8 to 12) over the weekend – the second book in David Lubar’s delightfully disgusting Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie saga, Dead Guy Spy. The sequel to 2009’s My Rotten Life, Lubar’s newest pits fifth-grade protagonist Nathan Abercrombie – a kid who got accidentally splashed with an experimental substance and turned into a zombie – against his biggest foe yet: a top secret organization that may be trying to destroy the world!
Being a zombie in the fifth grade has its advantages – Nathan’s muscles never get tired so suddenly he is the crazy gym teacher’s star pupil. Since he doesn’t have to breathe and his hand is rock steady, he is doing great in art class. And with a digestive system that just doesn’t work, Nathan can eat anything without gagging and just go to the playground later, hang upside down on the monkey bars and let gravity do its work. His best friend Mookie, in fact, talked him into entering a chicken wing eating contest but, after downing 63 red hot chicken wings, Nathan inexplicably can’t purge himself of the offending food.
So with his gut practically bursting from all of the (quickly rotting) food and agents from an agency known as BUM (The Bureau of Useful Misadventures) tracking his every move with high tech surveillance gadgets, Nathan’s life as a fledgling zombie superhero is suddenly very complicated – so what happens when he is suddenly forced by his overzealous gym teacher into mortal combat with his biggest grade school nemesis Rodney in a much publicized wrestling match?
While not heavy on existential enlightenment, Lubar’s Dead Guy Spy is chock full of laugh-out-loud fifth grade humor. Since Nathan is a zombie, he has detachable body parts and must always carry around a bottle of glue in case a finger or an ear falls off. There is also a pretty pungent fart motif throughout – “I remembered a disastrous experiment Mookie had tried last year when he’d farted on a candle. He hadn’t been able to sit down for a week…” – and puke plays a major part in the storyline. And, of course, jokes about the cafeteria food:
"As we stood in line, Mookie pointed at the pale, slimy burgers floating in shallow pool of greasy liquid. 'Those look more like a zombie than you.' Then he pointed at the soup. 'That looks like it’s already taken a trip through the digestive system.'
'So what are you getting?' I asked.
'Both.'"
But the farts and vomit and gross cafeteria jokes aside, this is fundamentally a story about friendship – and how those loving bonds can help anyone through anything. The misfit trio of Nathan, Mookie, and Abigail – an incredibly smart and eccentric girl – make this unique storyline both entertaining and endearing. And Nathan Abercrombie fans won’t have to wait long for the third book in the series – Goop Soup is scheduled for release in May!
So as you’re browsing through this site looking for potential books to read for yourself, keep the aforementioned statistics in mind. Is there a child between the ages of 8 and 12 that you know that might enjoy being surprised with a book?
One random act of literary kindness could make a bigger difference in a child’s life than any of us realize…
