The Last Kids on Earth and the Midnight Blade

Max Brallier's The Last Kids on Earth and the Midnight Blade is a monster-apocalypse comedy for 9 year olds that opens with all four friends turned into zombies.

What happens

Well, sort of. Jack, June, Quint and Dirk are only pretending. They've got grey make-up, a bottled zombie stink and a carefully practised shuffle, and they're sneaking into a bowling alley in the middle of a horde of the undead.

Their target is a villains' lair. Evie, the human baddie, and her giant, cheese-loving rat monster Ghazt have moved in, with zombie servants in hooded robes waiting on them.

It all kicks off fast. In the middle of the chaos Jack swings his baseball bat at a zombie and the zombie stops dead in mid-air. Did he just control it?

That's the big new idea here. Jack's bat, the Louisville Slicer, has a power. The trouble is that it burns his hand every time he uses it, and learning to control it is MUCH harder than in the films.

He's always dreamed of a training montage. What he gets is day after day of failing, a few BMX breaks and his mentor Bardle eating all his doughnut holes. It's very funny. But Jack also has a proper wobble. How is one kid supposed to save the whole world?

There's another worry running alongside. Dirk, the big tough one, isn't himself. He lies about with huge headphones on and says it's nice to switch his head off for a bit. So Jack and June decide to cheer him up. When nothing works, they turn the whole town into a real-life battle royale.

The jokes are as daft as ever (a zombie's toupee makes its escape in a gust of wind). But there's a lot of heart in how these friends look after each other, and that's what makes it more than a monster romp.

It follows on closely from the books before, and the first chapter catches you up on a LOT. Anyone meeting Jack for the first time should really pick up The Last Kids on Earth first.

What to read next

If the zombies are their favourite part, Zombie Town is in the library too. Mike hates scary films, but his best friend drags him to one on a rainy Saturday, and the cinema is completely empty.