GENRE: Humor, Character Driven, SEL
WORDS: 460
Query:
Dear PBParty Agents and Editors,
Beauregard the zombie requests your presence at Graveside Story Hour! Join him at moonrise for a reading of BEAUREGARD’S BOOKS AND BRAINS, a 460-word picture book manuscript brimming with humor, heart, and Halloween vibes.
When Beauregard, a zombie who prefers brains from books, launches a graveside story hour, he soon discovers his undead and supernatural tomb-mates don’t share his love of literature. Dying to connect with another book-loving soul, Beauregard leaves home and lurches into town, only to discover something—and someone—most unexpected in this utterly charming and humorous tale celebrating friendship and being true to one’s self.
BEAUREGARD’S BOOKS AND BRAINS combines the internal conflict of Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies (Megan & Jorge Lacera) with the longing to find connection a la Zombie in Love (Kelly DiPucchio & Scott Campbell), as well as the empowering SEL themes of Wolfgang in the Meadow (Lenny Wen) and Milly Fleur’s Poison Garden (Christy Mandin).
I’m an active member of 12×12, SCBWI, and Writing Mastery Academy. My poetry has been published in Imperfect II: Poems about Perspective, An Anthology for Middle Schoolers (History House Publishers, 2022) and the Autumnatopoeia issue of Little Thoughts Press (2022). In 2023, I earned an honorable mention in PBParty with my manuscript, Symphonic Storm. I’m a pediatric speech-language pathologist and mom of two book-loving zombies of my own.
Thank you for your time and consideration!
Excerpt:
Beauregard wasn’t like other zombies.
Though he was quite dead, books brought him life.
Beauregard longed to share his love of literature.
So he brainstormed a plan.
He fixed his favorite finger foods.
Set out his spookiest stories.
And posted a sign his fellow zombies couldn’t resist:
“Get more BRAINS at Graveside Story Hour!”
By moonrise, he was out of his mind with excitement.
But his tomb-mates were not.
What inspired you to write this story & what do you have in common with it:
I’ve had my nose in a book my entire life. I’ve always delighted in escaping to new worlds when I’ve needed it most. My heart breaks over the ongoing attacks on libraries and literature. I firmly believe kids should be able to read whatever they want for the pure enjoyment of it and be able to connect with others over a love of books. This manuscript started as an attempt to write a subversive story with plenty of puns and dark humor, but as Beauregard grew in pursuit of his passion, I grew in my love for him.
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