NIGHT OF THE LIVING GERBIL

After an overlong absence, the all-too-suggestible Bamford brothers (Frankenstein Moved in on the Fourth Floor, 1979; Dracula Is a Pain in the Neck, 1983) again let their imaginations get the better of them. In an effort to console his little brother Robert, grief-stricken after the death of his gerbil Exterminator, Sam secretly takes the corpse to Ben Winston, owner of a new bone and taxidermy shop, to be stuffed. What comes back is a little monster, rearing up on hind legs and baring shark-like teeth—and Winston’s odd, too, with dark circles under his eyes and a faint chemical odor. Could he be . . . a zombie? Sam and Robert are ready to believe. An elaborate memorial service for Extermie dissolves into pandemonium when the guest of honor is unveiled and Winston himself shows up—as the Bamford brothers’ divorced mother’s date! The deceased, with its extended front paws and evil glare, steals the show in the sketchy, comical scenes, but it all turns out to be a misunderstanding, resolved with a round of apologies and explanations. Young chapter-book readers may stay up late to finish this, but it won’t give them sleepless nights. (Fiction. 8-10)