翻譯/ bookmanta 當我們第一次偶然發現「兒童經典惡搞書」這個世界時，《好餓好餓的殭屍》是我們最先入手的一本。當時沒多想，只覺得這概念實在太有趣——竟然有整個「童書惡搞宇宙」存在！我們邊笑邊想：再怎麼樣，它不過是一本童書而已，能有多誇張呢？ 結果，我們發現我們實在是錯得很離譜。 在我們收藏的所有惡搞書裡，這一本最後被我們直接「封印」起來，悄悄消失在書架深處。第一次唸給我兒子聽時，他大約八、九個月大。才翻沒幾頁，我跟我老婆就面面相覷，因為這明顯是一本寫給大人看的「童書」，完全不適合孩子。還好，我兒子沒有像迷上《好餓好餓的毛毛蟲》那樣，對殭屍版產生任何執念。 那段時間，他對《好餓好餓的毛毛蟲》愛到不行。幾乎每天都會要求，更準確地說，是「強迫」我們一遍又一遍地唸給他聽，十次、二十次都不嫌多。我們也樂在其中，畢竟那真的是一本經典又可愛的作品。但《好餓好餓的殭屍》可就沒辦法了，我實在無法連續讀十次，一邊數著殭屍吃掉多少足球員和搖滾樂團的成員，一邊還得假裝若無其事。 不得不說，這本惡搞書的創意真的很妙，又黑色又幽默，甚至帶點一點巧妙的荒謬感，但絕對不適合幼兒閱讀。我很慶幸自己及時把它收起來。等他長大吧，也許有一天，當他真的「夠大」之後，我們再一起打開那本書，笑著回味當年那份驚訝與錯愕。 ✍️投稿原文/ Stanley: When we first stumbled across the world of parody versions of children’s books, The Very Hungry Zombie was one of the first ones we picked up. We didn’t think too much about it at the time — just laughed at the idea that there’s a whole multiverse of twisted takes on childhood favorites. How bad could it be? After all, it was still a board book. Boy, were we wrong. Out of all the parody books we’ve collected, this is the one we ended up shelving for later. The first time we read it with my son, who was around 8 or 9 months old, we were quite shocked after just a few pages. This was clearly a board book meant for adults, not infants. Thankfully, my son didn’t grow too attached to the zombie version the way he did to the original Very Hungry Caterpillar. Back then, he loved The Very Hungry Caterpillar so much that he would ask — or rather, demand — that we read it to him ten or more times a day. And we would happily oblige; it’s a great book. But there’s no way I could do that with The Very Hungry Zombie. There’s only so many times I can read through it and count how many football players and rock band members the zombie eats before I’ve had enough. I enjoyed the parody for what it was — clever, dark, and funny in its own way — but it’s definitely not toddler material. I’m glad we were able to put the book away for now. We’ll consider reintroducing it when he’s older — much, much older.