The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Undead

By Don Borchert and Mark Twain

       Tom Sawyer - oh, what adventures I had as a young child reading about Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher. Reading for fun and pleasure was a new concept, and I quickly became addicted.

Fortunately my addiction has held on into my adult years, and I was quite intrigued by a novel that would present my old friends with a new adventure to explore.

Tom and Huck have new trials and tribulations in the form of zombies. Yes - zombies, the walking undead - the brain-eating monsters of late night movies.

The book closely follows Mark Twain’s version of Tom Sawyer, interjecting zombies at random scenes. Tom does not fool his playmates into helping whitewash his Aunt’s fence but has them sharpening the pickets in an attempt to keep the zombies out. He and Huck don’t attend their funeral but pretend to return as zombies (or Zum as they call them).

Injun Joe is there in all his evil, and the Cave Scene was as breathtaking as before.

There seems to be an influx of books using the classics and well known characters in monster-type situations, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Undead fills the pages well.

I greatly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to readers looking to relive their youthful reading and to new readers wanting just a bit of bite... sorry - -couldn’t resist - in their classics.