Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a show that came out over 20 years ago. It’s more than reasonable to assume that the people who loved the show growing up have since gotten older, settled down and decided to pass on their love for the show to their offspring.
To every generation a Slayer may be born, but Buffy fans stretch across generations. Of course, it’s a pretty scary show, so how young should you start a potential Buffy fan? How about with an adorable picture book in which Buffy, Willow and Xander go on a sleepover? Kim Smith is no stranger to creating books firmly aimed at small hands which happen to be based on more grown-up fare. She’s nailed it yet again; this is a book that will delight kids and make adults grin in a silly sort of way.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer – A Picture Book is a charming affair. Like many of the Pop Classics before it, it reduces an iconic bit of pop culture down into its simplest form. The story is pretty straightforward. It focuses on a young Buffy Summers who’s afraid of the monster in the closet, so she gathers her friends together to figure things out. Obviously there’s also a trip to the library to meet Giles, and there are plenty of surprises for fans. By which we mean some very nice illustrations of notable things from the Buffy mythos.
Compared to previous works, it’s much more simplified than the other books. Smith’s version of Back to the Future had a meatier story to compress, as did the Pop Classic version of ET: an Extra-Terrestial. It is however, just as fun. We aren’t convinced that this could really be called “baby’s first horror” though. You have to be a certain age to really get spooky stuff, and that’s what the Goosebumps books are for.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer – A Picture Book is a must for Buffy fans, especially ones with little Slayers in their life.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER – A PICTURE BOOK / AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR: KIM SMITH / PUBLISHER: QUIRK BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW