ALA Booklist (Tue Jan 03 00:00:00 CST 2023)

When Stink's parents win a family sleepover at the local aquarium, he can't wait to visit the shark exhibit and hang out with his friends there. But after the excitement of an evening scavenger hunt through the aquarium, and a spooky story about Bloody Mary the vampire squid, who can sleep? Pages of fast facts about nonfiction topics related to the story (major aquariums, prehistoric megalodon sharks, and vampire squids) separate the chapters. With large type, an appealing title, and plenty of lively black-and-white illustrations, the ninth book in the Stink series will quickly find its readers.

Horn Book (Tue Jan 03 00:00:00 CST 2023)

When Stink goes to a sleepover at the aquarium, he's very excited (he loves sharks) but also nervous (he's a bit afraid of sleepovers). Although the children are constantly cracking each other up with silly second-grade jokes, readers will also glean lots of factual information about sea creatures. Reynolds ably illustrates both the wondrous animals and the comical antics.

Kirkus Reviews (Tue Jan 03 00:00:00 CST 2023)

An all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades. This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. McDonald signals her intent on page one: "Stink and Webster were playing Attack of the Knitting Needle Zombies when Fred Zombie's eye fell off and rolled across the floor." The farce is as broad as the Atlantic, with enough spookiness just below the surface to provide the all-important shivers. Accompanied by Reynolds' drawings—dozens of scene-setting gems with good, creepy living dead—McDonald shapes chapters around zombie motifs: making zombie costumes, eating zombie fare at school, reading zombie books each other to reach the one-million-minutes-of-reading challenge. When the zombie walk happens, it delivers solid zombie awfulness. McDonald's feel-good tone is deeply encouraging for readers to get up and do this for themselves because it looks like so much darned fun, while the sub-message—that reading grows "strong hearts and minds," as well as teeth and bones—is enough of a vital interest to the story line to be taken at face value. A playful salute to those who (kind of…well, not really) like things that go bump in the night. (Fiction. 5-8)