Pat the Zombie: A Cruel Adult Spoof of Pat the Bunny

Your children will learn precociously about texture, smells and undead biology

Written by Leo N.

I'm a sucker for well-done parodies because while they mock the original creation, they also show a deep knowledge of it. And that very knowledge, which the reader can recognise and appreciate in this book, is what makes Pat the Zombie so great.

Pat the Zombie, is based -- as you probably have guessed -- on that childhood classic Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt. Dorothy's book is great because combined with the very simplistic, child-like drawings, it has a surprising high level of interaction: you can touch and smell flowers, play peek-a-boo, look in the mirror, feel daddy's facial scruff and, of course, you could pat the bunny's wolly, fluffy fur.

It's no lie that when we received a copy of Pat the Zombie by Aaron Ximm and Kaveh Soofi, I was thrilled. Like I said, a well-done parody is a sign that something you love is loved by others. And by tapping into my childhood memories and giving them a twisted, darkly humoristic approach, it made it that much funnier. Not only does the book cleverly follow the same interactive mentality -- complete with the same drawing style and pastel colours -- but it does so very much like the original, except that... everything is zombie infused.

gut the cute bunnyIf you look carefully inside the bunny, that organ bigger than the stomach is called a caecum. It's what makes the grape-shaped droppings rabbits love to eat! But not zombie rabbits. They love brains. Hmmm, brains.

In Pat the Zombie we still observe little Judy and Paul do things which then we get to do ourselves; however, rather than smelling the flowers, Paul smells the decomposing remains of a zombie victim. Rather than feeling daddy's facial scruff, Judy feels his rotting, putrefying face. And, naturally, instead of patting the bunny's soft and comforting fur, we get to pull bunny's tummy apart and take a peak at his slimy entrails. It's brilliantly, rottingly done.

I'm not going to give more of the book away. If you have a thing for zombies, your sense of humour leans on the dark side and have had the fortune of having Pat the Bunny as a complete part of your childhood, you need to get this book. And, if you decide to swap the original book with this one when you read a bed time story for your children, they'll not only learn precociously about texture, smells and undead biology, but they'll be among the sole survivors, ready to restore civilisation from its ashes, after the zombie apocalypse.

Pat the Zombie: A Cruel Adult Spoof was written by Aaron Ximm and features the graphical (very much so!) work of Kaven Soofi. It's published by Ten Speed Press and is on sale at $11.99 USD.

Metadata: