The Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby

Quiet, unpopular, non-cheerleading Mia is blissfully happy. She is dating super hot football god Rob, and he actually likes her and asked her to prom! Enter Samantha?cheerleading goddess and miss popularity? who starts making a move for Rob. With prom in a few days, Mia needs to act fast. So she turns to her best friend, Candice, and decides to do a love spell on Rob. Unfortunately, she ends up inflicting a zombie virus onto her whole class, making herself their leader! At first she is flattered that everyone is treating her like a queen. But then zombie hunter hottie Chase explains they are actually fattening her up, because in a few days, Mia will be the first course in their new diet. She?s sure she and Chase can figure something out, but she suggests that no one wear white to prom, because things could get very messy.

(Goodreads)

Genre: humor; supernatural

Rating: 4/5

The good:

• Charmingly quirky characters dash around trying to prevent a zombie apocalypse while still going to prom. The book is darn cute. The situations alternately funny and peril filled. Mia isn't helpless, but she certainly doesn't know what she's doing. Chase is a nice guy trying to help misguided Mia. Candice, the hypochondriac best friend might steal the show as she downs vitamins and is convinced she has leprosy and various other ailments.
• Mia is thankfully unannoying. She isn't helpless, just in over her head. And her plight in wanting the star football player to take her to prom is understandable.
• Rob is vapid but nice, a welcome change from "unsuitable" romantic interests who make you wonder why they girl ever was interested in them if they had two grey cells to rub together. 

The bad:

• It's a light read. This isn't a book that's going to win writing prizes, but it's a fun, humorous read. 

The verdict:
Excellent book for kids wanting an enjoyable, not too heavy read. Great for reluctant readers.

The Gates by John Connolly

Samuel Johnson, a very interesting 11 year old, was just trying to show initiative by trick-or-treating a few days early. What he ends up doing is witnessing his neighbors accidentally opening a portal to Hell. Fortunately it's not a very big portal, unfortunately it's about to be one if the denizens of Satan have their way. So it's up to Samuel, his dog, a few friends, and one very bored demon to stop the end of the world.

Genre: humor; supernatural

Rating: 4.5/5

This book reminded me as nothing so much as a slightly lesser version of Good Omens. It's charmingly funny in its own way as Samuel and various other members of the community deal with the demon invasion happening. We find out that Nurd the Scourge of the Five Deities is a demon with a fondness for fast cars. We find that you can take out a demon (at least a lesser one) with a cricket bat. The one fault I found with the book is that Connolly tries to argue for science, but that intrinsically goes against the fact that all the plot of his book revolves around something supernatural. While he tries to blend them, their arguments of theory versus faith are at odds. To me he can't make the major plot of his book about demons, then try to brush aside religion. To me it's a flaw in logic that kept sticking out.

Thwonk by Joan Bauer

AJ is an aspiring photographer with love issues. She always tends to pick unsuitable boys and Peter is no different as he already has a girlfriend and AJ's friend keeps warning her is completely vain. Then AJ runs into a cupid ready to grant her every wish. Of course AJ wishes for Peter to love her and suddenly he is completely and embarrassingly in love with AJ. Sometimes what you think you want is not necessarily what you need, as AJ begins to learn the hard way.

Genre: humor; contemporary

Rating: 4/5

This was a cute book, short and fairly funny. The actuallity of having a boyfriend who is sickeningly in love with you with no real basis is amusing, yet you feel like AJ gets what she deserves. Everyone warns her that she repeatedly falls head over heels for boys who have no substance, yet she disregards every single person and careens down the path of heartbreak. It's hard to sympathize with her too much when she repeatedly crashes and burns.

The major issue I had with the book is that AJ seemed too young in her flighty mindset to be a senior in high school who had gone through several boyfriends. She seems smart enough, but we're asked to believe that she's literally gone through about 10 guys without pinpointing her problem of being all concerned with looks. AJ is just unbelievably stupid about some things, and that was sort of jarring. The book is funny though and the speaking voices are entertaining and almost Gilmore Girl- like. It's worth overlooking a few character flaws.