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Moms vs. Zombies, Mother’s Day Edition: Ask Jane

Welcome to the first of our Mother’s Day posts! Today’s entry is a fictional advice column, Ask Jane. It’s so hard to make parenting decisions that moms often end up turning to the experts: speakers, authors, and advice columnists. While there are many general survival manuals out there, like Max Brooks’  The Zombie Survival Guide, and Sean Page’s The Official Zombie Handbook, reviewed here, when it comes to the zombie apocalypse, we can now turn to Ask Jane.

The author, Jane Doe, is the mother of children of varying ages, including a four year old and at least one teenager. She’s also an inveterate reader of zombie fiction, and a font of knowledge on all things zombie.  Her real identity and location are unknown, but in the event of an apocalypse, she plans to head for Palm Springs.

Ask Jane: Practical Advice for Moms

Now that the Zompocalypse is here, we moms don’t know what to do with our children. We want them to be kids, but how do we keep them safe without impacting their childhood? Here are the most common questions asked.

Should I give my child Phalanx?

Phalanx is a rabies vaccine. It does absolutely nothing against the Zed Virus. While it won’t hurt your child to have the vaccination (if he or she is bitten by a raccoon it might help),  it will be ineffective against the living dead.

I’m having a hard time breaking my 5 yr old of her sharing habit. Should I even try?

Sharing is good manners. With the limited supplies survivors have on hand, sharing well is a must. Plus, if you share with others, they’ll share with you. When you become low on ammunition, your daughter’s sharing habits will save your lives.

Timmy’s best friend was bitten and he’s been having a hard time adjusting. How can I help him?

This is a tough one. You want your child to have friends, but it’s not good to get too attached to people. Help Timmy deal with the loss of his friend by putting the friend down humanely. Let Timmy do it if it will help. One clean shot to the head will let Timmy know his friend is no longer suffering.

My son is only 4. Is it too early to give him his own rifle?

4 is the perfect age to start lessons in marksmanship. Find him a little .22 rifle and let him practice on the hordes outside the city limits. The sooner he learns to shoot, the safer you’ll feel.

My little Susie was bitten. She’s really sick. What should I do?

The kindest, most caring thing you can do for her is to put her down. One bullet through the head is the greatest show of love. You must think of your other children. Their safety should be considered as well.

Check back tomorrow for our next entry!

Moms vs. Zombies

Ah, motherhood. It’s a crazy time. Under all the chaos, and even when you’re trying desperately to escape them, there’s a part of you that loves those kids no matter what, and wants to protect your children from anything that might possibly ever harm them.

So what happens at the end of the world? What does a mom do in the event of a zombie apocalypse? Do they have plans in place, just in case? I asked a whole bunch of them.

One practical mom said her plan is to head to Sam’s Club, and pick up a survivalist friend along the way. I guess it would be awhile before they ran out of supplies!

After one smart mom suggested heading to Palm Springs, several more started to plan to caravan there. In their minivans, maybe? Apparently Palm Springs only has two exits/entrances, is easily defensible, and wind powered. Only problem is, that since almost all of us live in the Midwest, those gas guzzlers would probably run out of fuel before we got there.

A surprising number(at least, surprising to me since I don’t think I’ve seen a movie in three years) had seen Zombieland and said they’d prepare with cardio. Since it’s the Midwest, it’s probably not that much of a surprise that many of them chimed in “Double Tap”!

One realistic mom said “I just stubbed my toe getting out of the shower”. She was pretty resigned to being zombie food! Another said “I am very, very smart”- meaning she’d quickly become brain food”!

One movie-watching mom said “As slow as they are in the movies, I think we could probably outrun them”! I must say, it’s not the first time I’ve heard that one!

A couple of them tracked down the zombie vaccine. Children must be immunized, you know! And several uninitiated ones headed off to track down the Zombie Survival Guide and Zombieland. And ammo. Knowledge is power, you know, and you’ve got to protect the children!

A few of them noted that their four year olds have already educated them about zombies. Add my obsessed five year old to that group. Although he seems to be moving on to cryptids, the zombies keep shuffling in.

Are moms going to survive the zombie apocalypse with their children intact? Some will… and maybe now a few more than before. Unless, as one mom who reads a lot noted, they’re Brian Keene’s zombies. In which case, when the birds get infected, we’re all doomed.

My thanks to the moms from IMLM who contributed their musings. I probably won’t survive the zombie apocalypse, but I sure hope they do!

The Walking Dead and Your Zombie Collection

In case you might have missed it, zombies have been the monster du jour for the past several years. They have been shambling their way through horror movies, video games, books, and graphic novels. They have even can be found in other genres such as paranormal romance (who knew!). The TV station American Movie Classics (AMC) has brought the graphic novel The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman to the little screen. With high production values, the show has become popular. What does this mean for libraries? We here at Monster Librarian feel that the different media that horror that the genre is found in provides an excellent opportunity to promote leisure reading by tying books to other media, like tv shows, movies, and video games, being promoted in mass media. There have been a plethora of zombie titles that have come out in the past few years, and this is a great time to put some on display!

Some notable titles we suggest for library collections:

Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead edited by John Skipp

Dying to Live and Dying to Live: Life Sentence by Kim Paffenroth

Dead Sea by Brian Keene

Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne

World War Z; An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brook

Bits of the Dead by Keith Gouveia

History is Dead by Kim Paffenroth

The World is Dead edited by Kim Paffernoth

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance – Now With Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen

The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks

Happy reading!