Mummies in the Morning (Magic Tree House, No. 3), Mary Pope Osborne (Author), Sal Murdocca (Illustrator) (Amazon, Kindle)
Magical Adventure, But This One Is a Bit Slack
The third magical adventure of Jack and Annie takes them back to the land of the Mummies, in Egypt. Here, they find themselves inside a Pyramid, and have to help a ghost-queen find her way to the otherworld. The queen, dead for over a thousand years, is stuck in this world, and needs to decipher some hieroglyphs to get to the otherworld. She can't, because of short-sightedness. Jack's glasses are of no help to a person made up of air, because she is made up of air! A real-world ailment for the departed, but without a real-world cure.
Jack and Annie are siblings, eight-and-a-half years and seven years old respectively. They find a tree house high up in a tree one day, and which has several books in it. Jack loved reading, while Annie had a sense of adventure. Looking at a book and wishing to go there took them to that place.
In both their earlier adventures, Jack and Annie got into some trouble, and received some help from unexpected quarters. In this third adventure too they get help, from a cat!
Like the earlier adventures, this book also contains eye-catching illustrations, some of which are full-paged. The style of writing is engaging, the language simple, the plot interesting, and the dialog of and between Jack and Annie brings out the personalities of the two children.
Unlike the first two adventures, however, this third adventures felt a bit contrived. I got the impression that the adventure lacked enough surprises to keep my fully engaged.
© 2012, Abhinav Agarwal (अà¤िनव अग्रवाल). All rights reserved.
