Short & Snappy Happy Book Blog: Where's My Mummy?
Author: Carolyn Crimi
Illustrator: John Manders
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Themes: Halloween, mummies, family life, bedtime
Age Range: 4-8
Word Count: 428 words
Teaching Tools:
Where’s My Mummy Activities and Freebies from Mrs. Jump’s class
Where’s My Mummy craft from First Grade Parade
Where’s My Mummy Shared Writing Activity and Craft from Simply Speech
Fun Halloween Activities from Scholastic
More spooky fun Halloween-themed books
Why I Love It: Where’s My Mummy? is short, snappy, and so much fun that it’s not scary. Little Baby Mummy doesn’t want to go to bed and begs his mother for one more game of Hide and Shriek. Little Baby Mummy encounters funny characters – a skeleton named Bones, an ooey gooey glob named Glob, and a pointy-eared vampire named Drac. Little Baby Mummy isn’t scared of any of them. At the end, the thing that scares him is a cute surprise. All ends well and the little mummy reunites with his mother. He gets wrapped up tight and tucked into bed. Fun language and a sweet story!
Excerpt:
So he tromped, tromped, tromped to the deep, dark woods, the spookery woods to look for Big Mama Mummy.
He stopped and he listened.
Clank clink clank
Woo boo woo
Clank clink CLOO
“Mama Mummy, is that you?”
From School Library Journal: “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.”
Author Tidbit: Halloween is Carolyn Crimi’s favorite time of year. As a child, she wrote handmade books for her family. She has a degree in writing for children from Vermont College.
Illustrator Tidbit: John Manders does lots of research before creating preliminary drawings. He loves pets. In addition to studying children’s illustration, animation, and life drawing, he also studied puppetry.
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Author Michelle Meadows blogs about her favorite short and snappy books on the Short & Snappy Happy Book Blog – a resource for teachers, librarians, parents, and other book lovers. To receive posts from the blog, Subscribe to Michelle's e-newsletter.
