Where's My Mummy?
PreSchool-Grade 1—Little Baby Mummy does not want to go to bed. Demanding one more game of "Hide and Shriek," he runs outside to conceal himself in the graveyard, but Mama Mummy doesn't join him. Like the young bird in P. D. Eastman'sAre You My Mother?(Random, 1960), he sets off to find her, heading into "the deep, dark woods, the spookery woods" and encountering several creepy creatures: "Clank clink clank/Woo boo woo/Clank clink cloo/'Mama Mummy, is that you?'/But out of the woods clanked—/Bones!" This skeleton, as well as a blob and a vampire—all making their nighttime preparations—greet the mummy and tell him to go to bed. The only time the youngster is truly frightened—by a mouse—his mother is there to comfort him, take him home, and tuck him into bed. The gouache paintings depict the action with humor, and the eerie details and nighttime hues create just the right mood. Well-placed page turns add a bit of suspense. A reassuring offering for youngsters who want just a touch of the shivers.—Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, MECopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an alternateHardcoveredition.