Cover Reveal of Zombie Zoo by Melanie Abed

Adventures in Tub (Felix & Ninja, Book 1)

Upper Middle Grade

Date Published: 09-15-2026

Publisher: Oculus Print

Two orphan loners. One supernatural plague. When wood-eating zombies threaten their island, mismatched investigators Felix and Ninja must combine science and instinct to save Spinachi-before they're next.

ZOMBIE ZOO is Book 1 in a five-book middle grade adventure series for readers ages 8-13, blending paranormal mystery, zombies, unlikely friendship, and STEAM-powered problem-solving.

When 13-year-old aspiring naturalist Felix Fizzystyxx discovers that orphans at Wayward Amok Orphanage are transforming into wood-eating zombies, his quiet tree-fort observations are no longer enough. Someone has deliberately unleashed a strange plague on Tub's island town of Spinachi-and they're still out there.

To find a cure, Felix must team up with Ninja, a shadow-dwelling orphan who trusts her instincts and never backs down. Intense and razor-sharp, she notices what others overlook and lives up to her name as the island's most mysterious sleuth. With their eccentric mentor Doc Brunne compromised and the town's water supply contaminated by a glowing bioluminescent substance, the two mismatched investigators must combine scientific observation with sharp intuition to stop the outbreak before their island home is devoured.

Set on the fictional island of Tub, this fast-paced, humorous adventure naturally weaves in STEAM concepts-biology, chemistry, bioluminescence, water systems, pattern recognition, and the scientific method-within an age-appropriate supernatural mystery. Themes include unlikely friendship, identity, trust across differences, courage, and finding your voice when adults won't listen.

Featuring diverse protagonists, quirky humor, spooky-but-fun scares, and strong female and male leads. ZOMBIE ZOO is ideal for reluctant readers and fans of Max Brallier's The Last Kids on Earth, B.B. Alston's Amari and the Night Brothers, and Goosebumps. Comprehensive educator resources-including discussion guides, vocabulary lists, STEAM extension activities, and printable maps-support classroom use, library programming, book clubs, and make this title ideal for cross-curricular lessons bridging ELA, STEAM, and SEL.

 

About the Author

Melanie Abed is a behavioral expert turned story weaver. She believes dragons are real but hiding, and finds thunderstorms equally delightful and terrifying. A tea-loving bookworm, she champions young minds and writes to help kids discover their superpowers are real.

Contact Links

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Instagram: @byMelanieAbed

Guest Post by Linda Hornberg author of Picture Garden (#spotlight, #Contests- Enter to win a signed copy of the book)

 

I want to welcome Linda Hornberg to Books R Us. Linda is surfing the blogosphere with I Read Book Tours. She has written a guest post just for my readers. Enter below to win a signed copy of the book. Thanks for stopping by.

Book Details:

Book Title:  Picture A Garden by Linda Hornberg
Category: Middle-Grade Non-Fiction (Ages 8-12), 160 pages
Genre: Children's Non-Fiction. 
Publisher: Peanut Butter Publishing
Publication Date: January 28, 2025.
Content Rating: G: Topics only include gardening and being outdoors. 

Book Description:

What springs to mind when you hear the word GARDEN? Would it surprise you to learn that the world just outside your door is overflowing with art, science, humor, drama, intrigue, and colorful personalities? Nature has you surrounded. It's time to come out with your hands gloved and your feet galoshed, ready to sow some spinach, pick a peony, mulch a maple, root a rose, graft a grape, stake a spruce, water a walnut, and hug a hemlock.

Set down your screens and take up your trowel.

Adventure awaits!

The stories inside this book are nearly all true. I have never actually seen a chorus line of worms decked out in feather boas, but I can guarantee that there are plenty of real-life larvae out there merrily chewing up the scenery. You can turn orange from eating too many carrots, and there really is a tiny plant island called a liverwart--although there probably are no tiny castaways living on it. Welcome to gardening for smarties. Never stop thinking, wondering, and digging, and you’ll never be bored. Have fun.

Guest Post: 

My Wild Life

The Makings of a Crazy Cat Lady: Linda R. Hornberg

I call myself a zookeeper, because I am always feeding, grooming or cleaning up after some manner of creature —but, thankfully, no elephants. My own menagerie, domesticated and non, consists first and foremost of a highly privileged indoor family of Felis domesticus (their civilized habits hinted at, if not guaranteed, by their species name). The current rescued housecat population includes Marnie, an eight-year-old Torbie (that’s a tortoiseshell/calico with an overlying tabby print on its coat), five-year-old ‘tuxedo’ Simone, and three of her four kittens: Paloma (Siamese), Soliban (Burmese) and Soliban’s twin, Mirabai Willow. (The fourth kitten, tortie Fiadh, lives with her adoptive family.) The kittens turned four in September, but they will always be kittens in my mind, because I met them when they were approximately two hours old, and tiny enough to fit two to a hand, if Simone would have let me. Two rescue dogs, Pocky (a Basenji/Jindo mix) and Holly (a hairless, blind Poodlet), round out the domestics. Outdoors, I support a mini-murder of crows, a wayward seagull I call Larry, and a growing family of squirrels I have given up naming, apart from Ursula, R.D. and Naachi. (All domestics were spayed at the earliest opportunity.)

I am not completely crazy. I do not attempt to groom the squirrels. I do feed them, and — before I figured out the drawbacks to doing so— I did allow them to set up household in the eave of my sunporch (after two attempts at removing the nesting material, I realized how persistent and determined a desperate, expectant squirrel can be: enter Ursula, mother of one). Ursula’s little kit, whom I dubbed R.Diaz (Latina humor), provided enormous entertainment with his (her?) energetic antics in the squirrel run, during the month that I was stuck at home during COVID lockdown. Ursula will still come straight up to me and take a peanut from my fingers. Naachi (identifiable by the small, square punch out in her ear —remnant of a past fight or mating bite—appears daily at the platform feeder. Do not imagine that I have only these two daily regulars at my platform feeder; the other half dozen or so (only six, seems like more…) simply lack clear identifying marks. Larry the Seagull has been a neighborhood resident for at least

fifteen years, and is recognizable by his voice. He and the crows get bread crusts and kitty kibble, tossed onto the carport roof. The crows are descendants of noble King Cracky — now gone, but remarkable for his habit of standing between me and my vehicle, to offer thanks in multiple ‘words’, or remind me on days I forgot to toss some bread. He never left me shiny treasures, but I have kept some feathers. Of course I hang suet and seed feeders, too. (I refrain from naming the songbirds. What do you take me for!)

 

BUY THE BOOK:
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Meet the Author:

Linda Robin Hornberg grew up in New York, drawing endless paper dolls and adventure comics with her sisters, Brenda and Heidi. She also enjoyed collecting shiny mimosa seeds in little bottles, nibbling parsley from Mom's tomato patch, sword fighting with Iris leaves and flipping cicadas back onto their feet. Her incessant doodling landed her at the Hartford Art School. She received her BFA in Printmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Further formal studies led to classes in children's illustration and certification in landscape horticulture.

Linda is a permanent transplant to Seattle, where she remains an enthusiastic gardener, insatiable reader, unapologetic punster, and incurable cat lady. Please do not offer her your strays. 

 Connect with the author:

 website ~ facebook ~ instagram ~ goodreads

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Tour Schedule:

Feb 10 – Locks, Hooks and Books – book review / giveaway
Feb 10 - @acourtofspinesnpages * - book review / giveaway
Feb 10 - @bearyintobooks * - book review / giveaway
Feb 10 - @thebookishren * - book review / giveaway
Feb 10 - @my_fair_fiction * - book review / giveaway
Feb 10 - @bookarlo * - book review / giveaway
Feb 11 – A Mama's Corner of the World – book review / giveaway
Feb 11 - @this.human.reads * - book review / giveaway
Feb 12 – @Myfictionalmusings – book review
Feb 12 - Sandra's Book Club – book review
Feb 12 - @jilljemmett * - book review / giveaway
Feb 13 – Deborah-Zenha Adams – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Feb 13 - Gina Rae Mitchell – book review / guest post / giveaway
Feb 14 – Paws.Read.Repeat – book review / giveaway
Feb 14 - @bookwale_sharmaji * - book review / giveaway
Feb 14 - @onceuponafrida * - book review / giveaway
Feb 14 - @bookscape__ * - book review / giveaway
Feb 17 - @onceuponamaltesereader * - book review / giveaway
Feb 17 - Liese's Blog – book spotlight
Feb 18 – Books With a Chance – book review / guest post / giveaway
Feb 18 - Country Mamas With Kids * - book review / giveaway
Feb 19 – @michellegodardricher * - book review / giveaway
Feb 19 - @regallywritten – book review / giveaway
Feb 20 – icefairy's Treasure Chest – book review / giveaway
Feb 20 - @thebookishdreamers * - book review / giveaway
Feb 20 - FUONLYKNEW - book review / guest post / giveaway
Feb 21 – Books R Us – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Feb 21 - @speedreadstagram * - book review / giveaway                
Feb 24 – @junebug_reads – book review
Feb 24 - @sparetimer866/ - book review / giveaway
Feb 25 – China Sorrows – book review / giveaway
Feb 25 - @onemorechap * - book review / giveaway
Feb 26 – Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's – book review / guest post / giveaway
Feb 26 - @kiv_coffeeandpages * - book review / giveaway
Feb 27 – @Leannebookstagram – book review
Feb 27 - Happily Managing a Household of Boys - book review 
Feb 28 – Library Lady's Kid Lit – book review / author interview / giveaway
Mar 1 - @nissa_the.bookworm * – book review / giveaway
Mar 2 - The Bibliophilic World - book review / giveaway
Mar 3 – Frugal Freelancer – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Mar 4 – Cover Lover Book Review – book review / giveaway
Mar 5 – @readsandmusic * - book review
Mar 6 – @lizzies.reading.recs * - book review / giveaway
Mar 7 - @bookishengineerblog – book review
Mar 7 - @adeela_books * - book review
Mar 7 - Faith and Books - book review / giveaway

PICTURE A GARDEN by Linda Hornberg Book Tour Giveaway

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