Ridgewood dad, daughter team up on zombie apocalypse camping trip novel for kids
RIDGEWOOD — Ready for the zombie apocalypse?
Village resident Dana Glazer and daughter Georgia have you covered. They've written a book for middle schoolers about a 12-year-old girl who becomes the "last hope for humanity" in their zombie adventure "Dawnah & the Darkhearts."
"We made it up on a trip to Cape Cod," says Georgia, now 13 and a seventh grader. "It started out as a script for a movie called 'Dawn and the Dead,' but that was already the name of a TV show, so I said let's spell her name really weird and it became 'Dawnah & the Darkhearts.'"
Her father, Dana, is a filmmaker, scriptwriter and professor who shares his daughter's enthusiasm for all things spooky.
"My thesis at NYU when I was in film school was 'Intermezzo, a Ghost Story," Glazer said. Most recently he filmed his romance "A Case of Blue" in Ridgewood and Paramus.
His self-published book with Georgia debuted last month, just in time for Halloween. His daughter said she has shared Dawnah's experience of sitting alone at her school's "buddy bench" at recess waiting for fellow students to come play.
"She doesn't connect with people very well, which is also something I have," Georgia said.
GLAZER'S 'CASE OF BLUE' Movie filmed in Ridgewood, Paramus written, directed by local resident
In the book, Dawnah has a pet rat named Shiloh who keeps her company on the bench, responding to her verbal commands. She will see those powers of persuasion come in handy when she encounters Ded Med, a medical student turned zombie, during a camping trip along the Appalachian Trail with her dad.
Together they rescue Dawnah's older sibling Tedi, who has the same powers, from a boarding school teacher who "just wants to make sure the zombie apocalypse happens."
This is not Georgia's first book. At age 6 she penned "No Pizza! No Cake!" — about a girl who gets tired of attending birthday parties where pizza and cake are always served and takes her case to the White House.
"It didn't get published until I was 10," Georgia said.
She will read excerpts from her book at the Ridgewood Public Library, at 125 N. Maple Ave., on Saturday, Nov. 18, at 2 p.m.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Ridgewood dad, daughter team up on zombie apocalypse children's book
