Talk About a Mummy's Spell

I'm on a mummy kick right now, and this past week I read Under the Mummy's Spell by Kate McMullan and Mummies in the Morning by Mary Pope Osborne.

Now, Under the Mummy's Spell was okay. It's one of these two story lines/two time period things, and, personally, I kept swinging back and forth as to which story I preferred. The really, really interesting thing about the book, which was published in 1992 and appears to be out-of-print, is that Amazon has people offering it for sale at...$49.95 and up! "And up" as in up to $149.96. And that's for the used books. One of the people selling new books is asking $303.60.

Hey, I've got out-of-print books. The most anyone is asking for any of mine is $18.00

Fortunately, I do not feel envy.

Regarding Mummies in the Morning, which is part of the Magic Tree House series: I often read kids' books that I just love. I enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy reading anything else. I can't say I felt that way about Mummies in the Morning. However, I think that back in the day when I was a very young reader, I would probably have loved the Magic Tree House books. Just the fact that we're talking a tree house would probably have been enough to grab me. Then it's a tree house filled with books some mysterious person left there? And I can travel all over the place by opening them? And come home safely? That definitely would have been right up my alley.

I definitely believe that it's important for people who write for kids to remember that they write for kids and not for adult editors, reviewers, writers, etc. Osborne may be doing just that.

The next time I'm in a grade school I'm going to ask around and see how the kids feel about these books.