It’s Not Easy Being Green
‘Crankenstein’ and ‘Zombelina’
From "Zombelina"
By SARAH HARRISON SMITH
Published: October 16, 2013
For parents, the scariest thing about Halloween is the lurking question:
When kids choose their Halloween costumes, are they choosing their
alter egos — or revealing their true selves? In two new picture books,
“Crankenstein,” written by Samantha Berger and illustrated by Dan
Santat, and “Zombelina,” by Kristyn Crow with pictures by Molly Idle,
kids really are monsters and zombies — and not just on Oct. 31.
CRANKENSTEIN
By Samantha Berger
Illustrated by Dan Santat
40 pp. Little, Brown & Company. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 2 to 6)
ZOMBELINA
By Kristyn Crow
Illustrated by Molly Idle
32 pp. Walker/Bloomsbury. $14.99. (Picture book; ages 2 to 6)
From "Crankenstein"
Crankenstein is the grumpiest kid ever. “Have you seen Crankenstein?” Berger writes. “Oh, you would totally know
if you had. You would say, Good morning!! How are you? Crankenstein
would say, MEHHRRRR!” The text of this book is simple but effective:
Crankenstein, who is green and none too pretty, but distinctly boy-like,
never says a proper English word, but responds to all cheerful
questions with loud monster-speak noises. Berger, a former vice
president of animated shorts at Nickelodeon and the author of many
children’s books, including “Martha Doesn’t Share!,” has a well-honed
sense of comic timing that little kids find hilarious, and
“Crankenstein,” with its many exclamation marks, growls and grumbles
should unleash the actor in any adult kind enough to read it aloud.
Santat created the animated television series “The Replacements” for
Disney; you may recognize his style from his earlier picture books,
which include the recent “Picture Day Perfection,” written by Deborah
Diesen. To convey Crankenstein’s crabby mood, Santat uses a lot of
sickly brown and green. But just when the reader has had about enough of
that putrid palette, Crankenstein meets another monster, and like two
negative numbers, they come together to make something positive. As
temperaments brighten, so too do Santat’s scenes, which are suddenly
sunny. For the sake of Crankenstein’s poor parents, let’s hope the
weather holds!
The little girl zombie whose story Crow tells in “Zombelina,” though
just as green as Crankenstein, is an altogether more cheerful character.
She’s the child of a witchy family who live in a very creaky old house
on Twisted Tree Lane. Zombelina is clearly unusual — and it’s not just
her coloring: her limbs are sewn on with big stitches, and she can
remove them. This comes in handy at ballet class. Illustrated by Idle
(“Tea Rex” and “Flora and the Flamingo”) in sweetly pink-hued scenes,
Zombelina can extend her legs farther than any of the human girls in
class — because she’s completely disconnected at the hip.
Her instructor, Madame Maladroit, delights in Zombelina’s dancing, but
when it comes time for the girls to perform for their assembled parents,
Zombelina is struck by a dreadful case of stage fright. Though the
resolution of this problem doesn’t quite make sense, the book ends with a
happy scene of Madame Maladroit celebrating with Zombelina’s family in
their kooky haunted house. Crow (the author of “Cool Daddy Rat” and
“Skeleton Cat,” among others) composes rhyming, pun-filled couplets that
add to the fanciful, magical feeling of this appealing story. Though
not a bit scary, the cast of characters in “Zombelina” makes it
ghoulishly appropriate for the season.