Mummies in the Morning

(The Mystery of the Tree House 3)

(Magic Tree House 3)
by
Mary Pope Osborne

illustrated by

Sal Murdocca

Random House, August 1993, 65 pp.
ISBN: 0-679-82424-3

Genre: Early Chapter
Subgenres: Time Travel / Ancient Egypt
Reviewed: 9/24/2003

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Excerpt

"Wait," said Jack. "I want to look at the book."

He opened the Egypt book again. He held it below a torch on the wall. The book showed a picture of the inside of the pyramid.

"The burial chamber is in the middle of the pyramid. See?" Jack said. He pointed to the picture. "It seems to be straight ahead."

Jack tucked the book under his arm. Then they headed deeper into the pyramid.

Soon the floor became flat. The air felt different. Musty and stale.

Jack opened the book again. "I think we're almost at the burial chamber. See the picture? The Hallway slants up. Then it gets flat. Then you come to the chamber. See, look--"

"Eee-eee!" A strange cry shot through the pyramid.

Jack dropped the Egypt book.

Out of the shadows flew a white figure.

It swooshed toward them!

A mummy!

"It's alive!" Annie shouted.

Synopsis

Jack has always been fascinated by mummies, so they go back to Ancient Egypt. They witness a parade marching toward a pyramid and watch a black cat run by. Jack and Annie follow the cat into the pyramid and get lost. While looking for the burial chamber, they stumble across the Ghost-Queen.

Queen Hutepi has been trapped in the pyramid for 1000 and wishes to be free. Jack and Annie must work together to solve the puzzle of the queen's entrapment by reading some hieroglyphs.

To make things even harder, there are tomb robbers in the pyramid that they have to avoid. And, then, the worst thing happens! Their flashlights go out and they are left standing in the pitch black of the pyramid. How will they ever find their way out?

Mummies in the Morning is the third book in the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. This is the third of four books in "The Mystery of the Tree House" collection. The book is illustrated by Sal Murdocca. This story is intended for early chapter book readers in 2nd to 4th grade. The writing is perfect for young readers as there are not a lot of difficult words, but new ones are introduced and then reinforced with repetition.

Review

In this third installment of the Magic Tree House, I was quite pleased to learn that the story takes place the day after the story in the second book, The Knight at Dawn. Jack and Annie find themselves trapped in a pyramid trying to help a ghost-queen gain her freedom.

The story is quick-paced and keeps the young reader interested. My daughter really wanted to find out what happens in the story, so she picked up the book at school and finished reading it there without me. Color me shocked!

We get to know the characters of Jack and Annie some more in the story, but there really isn't a whole lot of character development. I do like that Jack is meticulous and writes down everything he learned in a notebook. And who is the mysterious M? We do get another clue. But, will we ever find out? I guess you will have to read Mummies in the Morning to find out.

I rated this book a 7½ out of 10.