In Hannah Moskowitz's (Invincible Summer) first novel aimed at middle graders, she strikes just the right balance between grief and humor as a boy strategizes to bring his brother back from the dead.
Twelve-year-old Wilson Lowenstein wants nothing more than to get back his recently deceased brother, Graham. Legend has it that a special bell can wake the dead within five miles, and when Wil's best friend, Anthony, lets it slip that his father has hidden the bell in their home, Wil sets out to find it. Wil invented a game called "Zombie Tag," in which everybody closes their eyes while the designated zombie hides a "key" and then returns to tap everyone on the back. If you find the key, you defeat the zombies, but more often, the zombie turns the others into zombies, too. Wil uses the structure of the game to search for the bell at Anthony's home, finds it, and uses it, and 70 dead people rise and return home--including Graham.
Wil must confront some troubling questions: Is it better to have a brain-devouring zombie (like the ones in his game of tag) or a zombie devoid of all emotion? And then there's the reaction of the townspeople. They behave as if the risen dead could somehow infect them. Moskowitz's questions have a deeper resonance for any family grieving a loved one who has changed as a result of disability or illness. Using a fantasy element, the author explores very real emotions of loss and change. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness