The Mortification of Fovea Munson

April 30, 2018
In this lively middle grade caper, a 12-year-old girl has the experience of a lifetime when she reluctantly serves as summer receptionist for her parents’ cadaver lab, where doctors experiment on, and learn from, corpses. Fovea isn’t eager to be associated with the creepy business, especially since her classmates already call her Igor and make body-part jokes. Things take a turn for the outlandish when she discovers a trio of talking heads, and then things
spiral out of control when a fourth head vanishes. To retrieve the wayward noggin, Fovea has to help fulfill the heads’ dream of becoming a barbershop quartet, which entails a wild midnight adventure with a host of colorful characters, including her death-obsessed grandmother and her former best friend. Despite the silly premise, this tale, Heider’s debut, actually plays its vaguely explained core conceit—talking heads hanging on to a semblance of life—in a straightforward if frenetic manner. Fovea is a normal girl existing in a suddenly off-kilter world, and her struggle to help her family and newfound friends is relatable and satisfying. Ages 8–12. Agent: Tina Dubois, ICM Partners.

June 1, 2018

Gr 5-8-Poor Fovea Munson. Life is hard in seventh grade when your parents own a cadaver lab and your classmates know that your parents work revolves around dead bodies. And it doesn't help that Fovea is stuck working in the lab this summer because her camp plans fell through. When three thawed heads start talking to Fovea, though, her summer gets a whole lot more interesting. As it turns out, these heads need a hand-and Fovea may be the only one who can help them. Heider's tale is darkly comic and wholly original. Despite the gruesome premise, this is more comedy than horror. VERDICT Highly recommended for kids who like fantasy, science fiction, and light horror. Destined to be a popular summer reading selection.-Mitchell Berman, Zion-Benton Public Library, IL

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2018
Fovea Munson's mortification isn't unfounded: Her parents are surgeons...who operate on dead people ("Sorry. Cadavers").Fovea, whose name means "eyeballs" in "medical lingo," would rather spend the summer at "a chewed-gum landfill" or in "a yurt in Siberia" than set foot in the lab. However, the 12-year-old's eternally cheerful, medical-wordplay-loving parents have other ideas: Fovea can replace their former receptionist for the summer. All Fovea has to do is clean up after lunch, keep out wily medical-device salespeople, and take delivery of body parts (bull urethras, anyone?). As long as she stays out of the lab, she'll be fine. Right? Alone one afternoon, Fovea hears voices coming from the lab. When she investigates, she gets the shock of her very short life: heads talking to one another. As in medical specimens without bodies, defrosting on a table, and they need a favor. Shenanigans ensue as Fovea dodges a blackmailing cremator, searches for a missing biohazard, attempts to win back her former best friend, and hides her escapades from her parents and her Henry VIII-admiring Filipina grandmother. Fovea's wry first-person narration ("I miss the good old days where I fell off horses all summer") anchors the hilariously unbelievable action. Mixed-race Fovea's non-Filipino heritage is unspecified, implying a white default.Sure to tickle the most fickle funny bone. (Fantasy. 8-13)

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May 15, 2018
Grades 3-6 Fovea Munson has been called Igor by everyone at school since her ex-best friend told everyone that Fovea's parents work in a morgue. When her summer camp plans get canceled, her parents enthusiastically give her a summer job working as a receptionist in their lab. Fovea is less than thrilled, however, because she has no interest in becoming a doctor like her parents. One day, when Fovea is in the lab alone, she hears weird sounds. Investigating, she discovers three disembodied heads on a shelf that appear to be thawing. If this isn't shocking enough, all three begin talking and ask a favor of her. Before she knows it, Fovea is corralled into planning a late-night misadventure with her new friend Howe, her ex-friend Em, her not-so-helpless grandma Van, and a motorized scooter's basket full of talking heads. In her hilarious debut, Heider has crafted a unique plot interweaving gory bits dripping in pun-filled humor and a realistic tween-age drama about losing friends and finding oneself. This one's bound to have wide appeal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)