Goal #2 Complete: Stickers Away!

The Baby's First Book of Zombies continues to astound and amaze! We have crossed the $8,000 threshold, and as promised every backer above $6 will get will get a sticker sheet of wee BabyZombie stickers to put anywhere you want-- on your books, on your laptop, even on your baby. (Caution: do not insert in mouth. BabyZombie stickers LOOK tasty, and your baby will instinctively know this.) That is in addition to the Baby Zombie refrigerator magnets from completing our first goal! Additionally, all backers over the $130 backer level will get a a BONUS zombie sketch of any dead or undead human, animal, or vegetable of your choice, baby or otherwise.  Finally, all backers can have their name listed in a special thank you page on the Learning With Zombies Website, just for Kickstarter backers!

And some cool news!

We were able to accomplish this goal with lots of participation from many friends and new friends, and because a very generous couple made a major pledge! We'll be hosting a reading and illustration class at the deCordova Museum outside of Boston, MA in October of 2012. This will be an incredible event, made possible by two strangers, the magic of Kickstarter, and a couple of cuddly undead children. For anyone in the New England area, we strongly recommend you become a backer, even at the $1 level, to receive updates and advance notice of what will be the Halloween event in Boston next year. We also encourage other patrons of libraries, schools, and museums to make one of our major pledges so that we can come to your community and spread the Baby Zombie joy.

But wait... there's more.

New Goal: 150 Backers! New rewards!

We've decided to reach for a new goal, but this time focused around building community: we are trying to reach 150 backers. If we achieve this new level, we will give more bonus rewards for YOU! Every backer who gives even $1 will get an 8-page downloadable PDF Baby Zombie coloring book. So please, when you become a backer, tell all of your friends to join us as well!

The Book

They sleep during the day. They awaken at night. They are among us, and yet not quite fully human. It’s a ... ZOMBIE! No, wait, .. it’s a BABY! ... Huh?

A Baby’s First Book of Zombies is a title for young children and their parents which playfully explores the parallels between babies and zombies and the process by which parents slowly become zombies during their first year of parenthood. By alternating between scenes which are very silly and scenes that are just a little bit creepy, young children can begin to learn the joys of incorporating monsters into their imaginary worlds.

The Story

One day, Justin (@bjfr) was headed to a baby shower with his pregnant wife. He stopped at a bookstore to find the perfect book. His friends were big science fiction and fantasy fans; their baby was going to need some early exposures to monsters and aliens. But every monster book was too fuzzy and squishy. Justin needed a book about baby zombies. He thought he might write one someday... "Some people are big/some people are small/some people/are not/people at all." He could write them, but he'd need an illustrator.

Justin arrived at the baby shower. The first person he met was Marc (@marcscheff). Marc is an illustrator who was also about to have his first child (well, his wife was). The rest is history.

The Project

Marc and I have been working on the project for about a year, and we have decided it's time to organize a community of people to help bring this project to fruition. We need your support to fund a first printing, but we also want to bring you in to share your ideas and feedback. So buy a copy of the book, share a couplet, give us an idea for an image, or become a major backer and we'll put you  in the book, in zombified fashion. With your support, we will print a first run of Baby Zombie books in time for Halloween 2012, and we will begin illustrating additional titles in our series. 

Learning from Zombies

Despite their rotting flesh, our zombies are actually quite thoughtful about how pre-literate readers develop reading skills. The repetition in the text allows young children to learn prediction skills and read aloud along with caregivers (see Eric Carle's Brown Bear book for the archetype). The illustrations are designed to create parallels between the baby and zombie worlds--look again carefully at the video and you will be able to play a kind of "Where's Waldo" type game of matching items across the pages. And introducing Zombies and monsters into the imaginary worlds of children is inspired by E.B. White, who believed that young people, no less than adults, enjoy experiencing the full range of human emotions.

The Future

We have big plans for our babies and zombies; the Learning from Zombies project has a lot more in store. With your support, we hope that this successful campaign is the first step in bringing baby zombie learning to the world in all sorts of media. 

Unless the zombie apocalypse does set in, and then at least your children will be prepared... 

How Kickstarter Works (for those who haven't used it before)

Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.

During the course of the campaign, contributors will make a payment via credit card, processed securely through amazon.com payments.

If at the end of the campaign, the goal of $3,000 is met, your card will be charged for the amount you contributed, and your book or items will arrive in time for next Halloween. (It may be considerably sooner than that, but we want to be sure we have time to complete the illustrations and make everything look fantastic.)

If at the end of the campaign, the goal is not met, your card will never be charged, no money will change hands, and the book will not be printed.

More in depth information on Kickstarter itself is available at http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/kickstarter%20basics#WhatIsKick

Help us spread the word!

You can help bring our baby zombies to life by being a Baby Zombie Advocate! 

Advocates are front line troops in our campaign for world domination. Here are some suggested strategies.

Twitter:

• Level 1- Post the link for this page on your Twitter account.
  
• Level 2- Post the link every day for the next sixty days. 

Facebook:

• Level 1- Change your Facebook status update to the link for this page.
• Level 2- Change your Facebook picture to a screenshot from our video.
• Level 3- Create a Facebook event featuring this link, and invite all of your Facebook friends.

YouTube:

• Level 1- Create and post a hilarious mash-up using our Kickstarter Video
• Level 2- Post a reality TV style soliloquy about how this book has changed your life.
  

Halloween:

• Level 1: Dress up as a baby zombie. Tape index cards with our link onto each piece of candy you distribute
• Level 2: Set up a laptop outside your door, so parents can buy the book as their children get candy
• Level 3:  Set up a laptop outside your door, and require that parents purchase a copy of Baby's First Book of Zombies before their children get candy.