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Last week, a coworker volunteered me for a school visit, wherein I’ll be tasked with the job of “inspiring eighth-graders to read”. Now, if you remember being an eighth grader, or know any eighth graders, you realize the difficulties ahead. The books I choose must be thrilling, the manner in which I talk about the books has to be earth-shattering, and I, a glasses-wearing librarian, must somehow become utterly spell-binding. All in a day’s work, eh?
Fortunately, inspiration struck: having witnessed the glee with which both 9-year-olds and 15-18-years-old have played “Would You Rather”, I devised a book version using plot themes, characters and genres. For example, “Would you rather be the zombie or the zombie hunter?” leads to either My So-Called Death by Stacey Jay (be the zombie) or Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry (zombie hunter – and SUCH an awesome book).
I stumbled a bit when looking for a non-romantic vampire book for “Vampires: Date-able or Slay-able?” It’s really easy to find girls falling for vamps these days, but there’s not a huge variety of ‘vamps-are-evil’ storylines for tweens/teens (thanks a lot, Twilight). And then…I found Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer, written by Van Jensen, created and drawn by Dusty Higgins. Inspired by the original Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, which sees Pinocchio made, abused, tricked, hung, saved, jailed, transformed – okay, much darker than Disney – Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer picks up some years later.
Older Pinocchio is angry, bitter and hella vengeful, determined to kill all vampires, as vampires murdered his beloved father, Geppetto. As the awesome-est vampire slayer, Buffy, learned, every good slayer needs back-up, and so a carpenter and the Blue Fairy help by crafting cool gadgets and spells for Pinocchio’s nighttime work. Drawn in black and white, the story is pretty dark – people die and the vamps are creepy – but the writer’s humor lightens things up nicely. Pinocchio kills vampires by lying, breaking off his newly-grown nose, and staking. This leads to some very entertaining battle taunts, which also reminded me of Buffy (it all leads back to Buffy). With plenty of action, a snarky lead, and an exciting story, I predict that Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer will be a huge hit with the eighth graders…
As for us adults: if you’re a fan of re-imagined children’s stories and fairy tales, vampire slayers, and/or humor, watch the book trailer below, and then check out Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer from your local library today!