“This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by The Children’s Book Review. I received a copy of the book to facilitate my review and/or a promotional giveaway item. All opinions expressed are my own.”
ABOUT THE BOOK
Zombie Zoo: Adventures in Tub (Felix & Ninja, Book 1)
Written by Melanie Abed | Illustrated by Hisham Abed
Ages: 9–13 | 244 Pages | Publisher: Oculus Print (2026) | ISBN: 979-8-9952813-0-6
Thirteen-year-old Felix Fizzystyxx is an aspiring naturalist who observes the world from his hidden tree fort at Wayward Amok Orphanage. When he witnesses glowing green goo and strange behavior in the orphanage, his life as a quiet observer ends. He partners with Ninja, an intense, shadow-dwelling orphan who trusts her instincts and operates alone, to investigate. Together they discover that the orphans — and soon the entire town of Spinachi on the island of Tub — are turning into wood-eating zombies controlled by a hive mind.
With the help of their eccentric mentor Doc Brunne, Felix and Ninja trace the cause to Noctiluna, rare bioluminescent organisms deliberately introduced into the town’s water supply, and race to find a cure before the whole town — including Doc himself — is lost to the transformation. Zombie Zoo kicks off the Adventures in Tub series with a debut story guaranteed to keep readers turning the pages.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melanie Abed is a behavioral expert turned story weaver. She believes dragons are real but hiding, and finds thunderstorms equally delightful and terrifying. A tea-loving bookworm, she champions young minds and writes to help kids discover their superpowers are real.
Website: www.melanieabed.com | Instagram: @bymelanieabed
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Emmy-winning director Hisham Abed has established himself as a visionary creative force in television, directing commercially successful shows including Netflix’s Queer Eye and Disney’s High School Musical, and shaping the visual aesthetic of MTV’s Laguna Beach and The Hills. Beyond his directorial achievements, Hisham Abed is an accomplished illustrator whose detailed artwork brings imagination and style to every project he touches.
Website: www.hishamabed.com
GUEST POST
Here’s a truth I stand by: if you can make a kid laugh, you can make a kid feel.
Humor lowers the drawbridge. Once a reader is giggling because Felix has just realized he was named after a bendy straw, or watching Ninja vault silently to the top of a filing cabinet while he panics below, they’re wide open. That’s when you can slip in the harder stuff—friendship, courage, standing up to bullies, finding your voice when the world isn’t listening.
ZOMBIE ZOO is packed with silly, gooey, gross-out fun. But underneath the laughs, kids are absorbing real messages about resilience, curiosity, and what it means to be brave. The humor doesn’t distract from the heart. It delivers it.
Fast Pacing, Punchy Chapters, Silly Humor: My Formula for Hooking Reluctant Readers
The Sentence that Almost Wasn’t
The substance expanded slightly, almost like a water droplet responding to surface tension.
Unprecedented. Undocumented. Unknown.
These are lines from Chapter One of ZOMBIE ZOO—and honestly, that little stack of one-word sentences? It almost didn’t happen.
In all my years of storytelling, I had never once committed to a specific stylistic choice like fragmented, one-word prose. It felt wrong. It felt like I was breaking rules I’d spent a lifetime learning to respect. But once I let Ninja be Ninja and Felix be Felix, something clicked—and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I made for hooking the exact readers I wanted to reach: the kids who don’t yet think of themselves as readers.
Here’s the formula I’ve landed on.
I Like to Think of Pacing as a Promise
When a reluctant reader picks up a book, they’re making a bet. Is this worth my time? Every paragraph either honors that bet or breaks it.
Fast pacing isn’t about rushing. It’s about respecting the reader’s attention. Kids have more demands on their attention than ever, and stories compete with countless other distractions. If I want a kid to stay with Felix as he crouches in a pantry counting his own heartbeats, I have to earn every page turn. That doesn’t mean dumbing anything down. It means choosing every word like it costs me something.
Punchy Chapters: Small Wins Build Big Readers
I love a good short chapter. So do reluctant readers.
There’s a psychological reward in closing a chapter—it’s a small win, a checkpoint, a moment where a kid thinks, I did that. I can do one more. String enough of those together, and suddenly a kid who “doesn’t read” has finished a whole novel.
This isn’t accidental. My background in child psychology reinforced what I see in practice: small, achievable wins build confidence. Every short chapter in ZOMBIE ZOO is a tiny high-five to the kid holding the book.
Silly Humor Is a Trojan Horse
Letting Characters Dictate the Prose
Here’s where I finally made peace with those uncomfortable one-word sentences.
Ninja speaks in staccato bursts. She’s efficient. Fierce. Every syllable earns its keep. Her rhythm is short. Sharp. Deliberate. When she moves through a hallway, she moves in fragments—Three steps. She grabbed Felix’s vest. Closed the door. Writing her forced me to trust that white space on a page can carry as much weight as a full paragraph.
Felix is different. He’s an observer. A cataloger. He notes his own heart rate in beats per minute and files sensory data by dominance—spinach (dominant), wood (secondary), unfamiliar (unknown). His voice is careful and curious, but it comes in clipped, journal-like bursts because a scientist recording data doesn’t waste ink.
Two very different characters. Two very different rhythms. But both of them, by design, keep the story moving.
Of course, I love a beautifully constructed long sentence. Dickens, Austen, Pratchett, Christie—those writers shaped me. But when you’re trying to hook a young reader, you have to meet them where they are and make it inviting for them.
Meeting Kids Where They Are (Then Taking Them Somewhere Wonderful)
This is my north star as a middle-grade author: meet kids where they are, then take them somewhere wonderful.
Reluctant readers just haven’t found the book that convinced them the effort was worth it. My whole job is to be that book—or at least to try.
Fast pacing. Punchy chapters. My own brand of quirky and silly humor. Characters with voices so distinct you can hear them off the page. That’s my formula. Not because it’s a marketing strategy, but because it’s what I think is required today to engage and entertain young minds.
One Last Thing…
True, I didn’t set out to write one-word sentences. Ninja and Felix asked me to. Turns out, sometimes the shortest sentences carry the biggest stories.
P.S. Avoid. Green. Goo.
| Date | Host | Content |
| Friday, August 14, 2026 | The Children’s Book Review | Book Review of Zombie Zoo |
| Monday, August 17, 2026 | @tamiscripps | Instagram Reel about Zombie Zoo |
| Tuesday, August 18, 2026 | @nissa_the.bookworm | Instagram Post about Zombie Zoo |
| Thursday, August 20, 2026 | The Children’s Book Review | Book List featuring Zombie Zoo |
| Friday, August 21, 2026 | icefairy’s Treasure Chest | Book Review of Zombie Zoo |
| Monday, August 24, 2026 | Lisa’s Reading | Guest Post about Zombie Zoo |
| Tuesday, August 25, 2026 | Deliciously Savvy | Book Review of Zombie Zoo |
| Thursday, August 27, 2026 | Country Mamas With Kids | Book Review of Zombie Zoo |
| Friday, August 28, 2026 | Mary Lanni Reads | Book Review of Zombie Zoo |
| Monday, August 31, 2026 | @KidsLittleFreeLibraryIsLori | Book Review of Zombie Zoo |
| Tuesday, September 1, 2026 | Sybrina’s Book Blog | Guest Post about Zombie Zoo |
| Thursday, September 3, 2026 | @ABlueBoxFullofBooks | Book Review of Zombie Zoo |
| Friday, September 4, 2026 | Life is What It’s Called | Author Interview with Melanie Abed |
| Monday, September 7, 2026 | Writer with Wanderlust | Book Review of Zombie Zoo |
| Tuesday, September 8, 2026 | Q&As with Deborah Kalb | Author Interview with Melanie Abed |
| Thursday, September 10, 2026 | Cover Lover Book Review | Book Review of Zombie Zoo |
| Friday, September 11, 2026 | One More Exclamation |
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon: https://amzn.to/
Barnes & Noble: barnesandnoble.com/w/
Bookshop.org: bookshop.org/a/
GIVEAWAY DETAILS
Ten lucky readers will each win a signed paperback copy of Zombie Zoo. One grand prize winner will receive an epic swag haul: a signed hardcover copy, bookmark, postcard, sticker sheet, Tub Explorer Pin, a sample of Tub’s Green Goo, and a Make Your Own Glow-in-the-Dark Green Goo Kit. Giveaway ends September 14, at 11:30 PM MT.
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