National Geographic Kids Readers: Mummies
Sensitive youngsters beware: with its numerous photos of shriveled and discolored corpses, this slim entry in the National Geographic Readers series is nightmare candy. But for kids with a taste for the macabre, it’s a visceral introduction to a topic they’ll keep seeing throughout their education. Carney divides her subject into two categories: natural mummies and man-made mummies. The first category is illustrated with mummies found chiefly in bogs, and their shiny black faces (one with a noose still around his neck!) are hauntingly preserved. The simple text provides plenty of shockers: “The bits of his last meal, vegetable soup eaten 2,300 years ago, are still in his stomach.” Egyptian mummies dominate the latter half of the book, which includes a cartoon-style “How to Make a Mummy” section. Scattered throughout are boxes that define unfamiliar words. A few jokes running along the top of the book (“Why did the mummy call a doctor? Because he was coffin”) try their best but can’t really lighten the mood of this dark but intelligent offering. Grades K-2. --Daniel Kraus