18 Zombie Books for Kids & Teens
Halloween is right around the corner and for many, that means pulling out all the stops for all things spooky and scary. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m a pretty big scaredy-cat, so I’m not a big fan of the horror genre. That being said, I’ll give most things a try and I’ve read a lot of these zombie books and actually liked them, so you never know! I’ll be honest, I found a lot more zombie books than I expected to, and this is just a small sampling of books you’ll find at all levels of reading for kids from picture books to YA novels, so no matter what age, you’ll be sure to find at least one zombie book, if not a lot more!
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read the full disclosure for more information.
18 Zombie Books for Kids & Teens
Brains: Not Just a Zombie Snack by Stacy McAnulty, illustrated by Matthew Rivera
Brains. 78% water, 100% delicious. A zombie chef who has sworn off eating brains salivates over this super powerful organ in this funny and fact-filled picture book. From learning about how the brain processes messages from our five senses, to learning why wrinkly human brains are so much more powerful than smooth mouse brains, this is a hilarious introduction to the organ that does it all. Rich with kid-friendly facts and beautifully brought to life by Matthew Rivera, this is a charming and irresistible picture book.
Peanut Butter and Brains by Joe McGee, illustrated by Charles Santoso
Reginald isn’t like the other zombies who shuffle through Quirkville, scaring the townspeople and moaning for BRAINSSSSS! The only thing Reginald’s stomach rumbles for is sticky peanut butter and sweet jelly. He tries to tell his zombie pals that there’s more to life than eating brains, but they’re just not interested. Will Reginald find a way to bring peace to Quirkville and convince the other zombies that there’s nothing better than PB&J?
Zombelina by Kristyn Crow, illustrated by Molly Idle
Zombelina loves to dance. She moonwalks with mummies and boogies with bats. She spins like a specter and glides like a ghost and loves to dance for her family the most. When Zombelina enrolls in a ballet class for real girls, her dancing gives everyone the chills! But when her first recital brings on a case of stage fright, her zombie moans and ghoulish groans scare her audience away. Only her devoted family’s cheers, in their special spooky way, help Zombelina dance the ballet debut of her dreams.
Zombie in Love by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Scott Campbell
Mortimer is looking for love. And he’s looking everywhere! He’s worked out at the gym (if only his arm wouldn’t keep falling off). Mortimer’s tried ballroom dancing lessons (but the ladies found him to be a bit stiff). He’s even been on stalemate.com. How’s a guy supposed to find a ghoul? When it seems all hope has died, could the girl of Mortimer’s dreams be just one horrifying shriek away?
A to Z Mysteries: The Zombie Zone by Ron Roy
Z is for Zombie . . . There’s a zombie on the loose! When Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose visit the Louisiana bayous, they meet a village with one spooky problem. Locals say a silver-haired zombie is digging up graves in the cemetery. Are the stories real? Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose will unearth the truth!
Desmond Cole, Ghost Patrol: Night of the Zombie Zookeeper by Andres Miedosa, illustrated by Victor Rivas
For this case, Desmond and Andres off to the zoo! Zoo field trips are the best. You get to ride in a bus, you get to spend the day outside, and all the animals are safely far away in their enclosures. Nothing scary here, right? Wrong! Leave it to Desmond Cole to find the one zookeeper who’s also a zombie.
Here’s Hank: There’s a Zombie in My Bathtub by Henry Winkler, illustrated by Lin Oliver
With Halloween approaching, Hank and his friends decide to watch a scary movie to get ready for the holiday. But the movie turns out to be a bit too scary for Hank, and suddenly he sees zombies every time he closes his eyes. Everyone says zombies aren’t real, but then people around him start moaning and acting like the undead, and he isn’t so sure. Hank isn’t taking any chances—not when there might be zombies on the loose!
My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish by Mo O’Hara
When Tom’s big brother decides to become an Evil Scientist, his first experiment involves dunking Frankie the goldfish into toxic green gunk. Tom and his best friend Pradeep know that there is only one thing to do: Zap the fish with a battery and bring him back to life! But there’s something weird about the new Frankie. He’s now a BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH with hypnotic powers . . . and he’s out for revenge!
Stink and the Midnight Zombie Walk by Megan McDonald, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
Guts! Brains! Eyeballs! There’s only one week before the new book in the Nightmare on Zombie Street series comes out. Of corpse Stink will be first in line at the Blue Frog Bookstore to buy his copy and join the town’s Midnight Zombie Walk! Until then, Stink and his friends keep busy making ketchup-stained zombie costumes, trying to raise money to buy the book, and racking up points for Virginia Dare School’s race to one million minutes of reading. But with all that talk about the undead, Zink — that is, Stink — starts to wonder: is he being hunted by zombies? He does have a very delicious — er, superb — brain, after all. Readers will just have to open ze book and zee! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!
Zombiekins by Kevin Bolger
Stanley Nudelman buys Zombiekins at the yard sale of his neighbor, the Widow Imavitch. It looks cuddly and creepy-cute–but expose the TEDDY OF TERROR to moonlight, and strange things happen. . . .
When Zombiekins gets loose at his school, Stanley finds himself in GRAVE danger. Because if his teacher Mr. Baldengrumpy discovers he turned the whole school into zombies, Stanley will be in detention till he’s, like, 80!
Can Stanley and his best friend Miranda save their schoolmates from eternal zombiefication? If not, will Mr. Baldengrumpy even notice?
Plants Vs. Zombies: Lawnmageddon by Paul Tobin
The confusing-yet-brilliant inventor known only as Crazy Dave helps his niece, Patrice, and young adventurer Nate Timely fend off a “fun-dead” neighborhood invasion in Plants vs. Zombies: Lawnmageddon! Winner of over thirty “Game of the Year” awards, Plants vs. Zombies is now determined to shuffle onto all-ages bookshelves to tickle funny bones and thrill… brains.
The Last Kids on Earth by Max Brallier
Ever since the monster apocalypse hit town, average thirteen year old Jack Sullivan has been living in his tree house, which he’s armed to the teeth with catapults and a moat, not to mention video games and an endless supply of Oreos and Mountain Dew scavenged from abandoned stores. But Jack alone is no match for the hordes of Zombies and Winged Wretches and Vine Thingies, and especially not for the eerily intelligent monster known only as Blarg. So Jack builds a team: his dorky best friend, Quint; the reformed middle school bully, Dirk; Jack’s loyal pet monster, Rover; and the fiercest girl Jack knows, June. With their help, Jack is going to slay Blarg, achieve the ultimate Feat of Apocalyptic Success, and be average no longer! Can he do it?
Zombie Baseball Beatdown by Paolo Bacigalupi
The zombie apocalypse begins on the day Rabi, Miguel, and Joe are practicing baseball near their town’s local meatpacking plant and nearly get knocked out by a really big stink. Little do they know the plant’s toxic cattle feed is turning cows into flesh-craving monsters! The boys decide to launch a stealth investigation into the plant’s dangerous practices, unknowingly discovering a greedy corporation’s plot to look the other way as tainted meat is sold to thousands all over the country. With no grownups left they can trust, Rabi and his friends will have to grab their bats to protect themselves (and a few of their enemies) if they want to stay alive…and maybe even save the world.
Zombie Tag by Hannah Moskowitz
Wil is desperate for his older brother to come back from the dead. But the thing about zombies is . . they don’t exactly make the best siblings.
Thirteen-year-old Wil Lowenstein copes with his brother’s death by focusing on Zombie Tag, a mafia/capture the flag hybrid game where he and his friends fight off brain-eating zombies with their mothers’ spatulas. What Wil doesn’t tell anybody is that if he could bring his dead brother back as a zombie, he would in a heartbeat. But when Wil finds a way to summon all the dead within five miles, he’s surprised to discover that his back-from-the-dead brother is emotionless and distant.
The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Seventeen-year-old Aderyn (“Ryn”) only cares about two things: her family and her family’s graveyard. And right now, both are in dire straits. Since the death of their parents, Ryn and her siblings have been scraping together a meager existence as gravediggers in the remote village of Colbren, which sits at the foot of a harsh and deadly mountain range that was once home to the fae. The problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren, though, is that the dead don’t always stay dead.
The risen corpses are known as “bone houses,” and legend says that they’re the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?
Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the deeply-buried truths about themselves. Equal parts classic horror novel and original fairy tale, The Bone Houses will have you spellbound from the very first page.
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—derailing the War Between the States and changing the nation forever.
In this new America, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Education Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.
But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.
But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose.
But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies.
And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.
Feed by Mira Grant
The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.
Now, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives—the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.
This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live.
But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life―and death―inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?
