Book Review: Dick and Jane and Vampires

I really find "Dick and Jane and Vampires!" by Laura Marchesani, a surprisingly entertaining little book.


It's hard to explain why I like this book. Every time I check it in or out for someone at the library, it makes me smile. When I flip through it and see the vampire pop up in various poses with the classic early reader characters of "Dick and Jane" it just makes me chuckle. Maybe I have a morbid sense of humor. Maybe it's the author's treatment of the scenes of the children and the parents and the vampire. I just know I get a real kick out of this book and its simple, amusing, tongue-in-cheek humor. I love how gentle it feels, just like the original books, but the sly satire is perfect.

It probably helps that I actually DID read Dick and Jane books when I was learning to read. I must have gone to some ancient elementary schools, because I think I'm too young to really have "grown up" on Dick and Jane, but maybe I was learning to read during the waning years of these classic Basal Readers, because I do remember reading them.


And, like many of you, I've had about enough of the shelf-filling teenage-girl vampire "romance" books. I have very little interest in reading most of the current ocean of vampire and werewolf and ghost books. I don't even really care to read things like "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". I like books about such things, but I feel like if it's been overdone, it's probably not being done well.


"Dick and Jane and Vampires", though, is done well. It's definitely a funny take on the vampire infestation in our public libraries. If it's available in yours, then you have a pretty cool library. Go check it out.