While this could be hilarious I do have to say I have one huge warning. With such a comparison between babies, the undead, and cute cartoony graphics… What happens when a young kid who doesn’t yet fully know the difference between realty gets a hold of this? What happens when they know to get rid of the dead you shoot them in the head? What happens when they compare the dead to their baby brother or sister? I’d be worried too! However if there are no younger kidlets to worry about this one is going to be a blast to pickup. The initial funding has been put into place. The book IS going to be a reality. Hell, you can still donate though to pre-order and help the company get further exposure. If it’s a book you may want it’s absolutely worth checking out!
We were also lucky to show you a few examples that can be found within the book for those not wanting (or if at work unable) to watch the video above. These are some baby/zombie comparisons that you ‘might’ just enjoy because…. well because I found them to be hilarious so I figured I’d have you take a look as well!
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The Book
They sleep during the day. They awaken at night. They are among us, and yet not quite fully human. It’s a … ZOMBIE! No, wait, .. it’s a BABY! … Huh?
A Baby’s First Book of Zombies is a title for young children and their parents which playfully explores the parallels between babies and zombies and the process by which parents slowly become zombies during their first year of parenthood. By alternating between scenes which are very silly and scenes that are just a little bit creepy, young children can begin to learn the joys of incorporating monsters into their imaginary worlds.
The Story
One day, Justin (@bjfr) was headed to a baby shower with his pregnant wife. He stopped at a bookstore to find the perfect book. His friends were big science fiction and fantasy fans; their baby was going to need some early exposures to monsters and aliens. But every monster book was too fuzzy and squishy. Justin needed a book about baby zombies. He thought he might write one someday… “Some people are big/some people are small/some people/are not/people at all.” He could write them, but he’d need an illustrator.
Justin arrived at the baby shower. The first person he met was Marc (@marcscheff). Marc is an illustrator who was also about to have his first child (well, his wife was). The rest is history.
The Project
Marc and I have been working on the project for about a year, and we have decided it’s time to organize a community of people to help bring this project to fruition. We need your support to fund a first printing, but we also want to bring you in to share your ideas and feedback. So buy a copy of the book, share a couplet, give us an idea for an image, or become a major backer and we’ll put you in the book, in zombified fashion. With your support, we will print a first run of Baby Zombie books in time for Halloween 2012, and we will begin illustrating additional titles in our series.
Learning from Zombies
Despite their rotting flesh, our zombies are actually quite thoughtful about how pre-literate readers develop reading skills. The repetition in the text allows young children to learn prediction skills and read aloud along with caregivers (see Eric Carle’s Brown Bear book for the archetype). The illustrations are designed to create parallels between the baby and zombie worlds–look again carefully at the video and you will be able to play a kind of “Where’s Waldo” type game of matching items across the pages. And introducing Zombies and monsters into the imaginary worlds of children is inspired by E.B. White, who believed that young people, no less than adults, enjoy experiencing the full range of human emotions.
The Future
We have big plans for our babies and zombies; the Learning from Zombies project has a lot more in store. With your support, we hope that this successful campaign is the first step in bringing baby zombie learning to the world in all sorts of media.
Unless the zombie apocalypse does set in, and then at least your children will be prepared…
If you are interested you can sign up on A Baby’s First Book Of Zombies Kickstarter by December 26th!
