David Stewart (1)Rezensionen

reviewed

An adventurous journey with the most famous pirate of them all, Sir Francis Drake.

“You wouldn’t want to be an Egyptian Mummy!” is part of a very large collection of the “You wouldn’t want to be…” series. These children’s history books do not spare children the gory details of the past, capturing the most reluctant readers attention and even the attention of adults. This particular book takes the reader through the laborious embalming process, right down to preserving the eternal organs, asking the reader to imagine they are the mummy (or dead person). And the story does not end there, we have tomb robbers to consider and of course those curious Englishmen. If you happened to be unwrapped at an English party, “you may be re-wrapped and put into a museum,” or you could end up ground into ointment or paint! Did you know that Egyptian mummified cats were being used as fertilizer in Europe in the 19th century? This book is so filled with facts, yet not overwhelming, that make it an enjoyable repeated read.

This book starts with plenty of information on becoming a mummy. Steps like the costs of becoming one and the materials you’ll need. First, if you are wealthy, you could afford a mask and sarcophagus as well as lots of riches in your tomb for the afterlife, and even mummified pets. The lower in the classes you got, the less riches and linen you received for your dead body. It also describes where your body would be cut open, who cut it open, and what happened to your body parts. The liver, lungs, and stomach would be removed and placed in separate jars. You can’t forget to put your body in salt though - that will keep it preserved in the afterlife. After being wrapped in linen if that’s what you could afford, your body would be placed in a sarcophagus where you would “live” the rest of your afterlife days.

With enjoyable graphics and easy to read format, this book was very fun to read. It was perfect for me because I love reading about mummies and I was very entertained. My favorite new thing I learned was that pets would be mummified too - even if they were still alive! Reading through this, I learned other new things as well, and that kept me interested in the book. The fancy fonts tie it all together, being eye catching but not too busy. It was humorous and also expentingly gross sometimes, but that also made me laugh. It was a great book full of many interesting details, and I enjoyed reading it.½

I think the book was a quick read, but a lot of information! the only thing I disagree with is the handy hints after we're dead. How are we supposed to do anything about it? But it did provide a lot of information that I did not know. Like the possible reasons that he could have died. I thought it was infection. But overall, it was 4 stars.

I barely remembered about Francis drake before reading this picture book. Then I was like oh yea I remember learning about this guy, he died at sea! And sure enough he did. I didn’t know though exactly how much trouble Francis drake had when sailing back and forth from England to the new world. His ships hit storms, natives were not so interested in trading their spices, his ships needed constant repairs, he hits coral reefs, he fights the Spanish in the armada. Then he dies at sea and is buried at sea. Out of all those things I read about, I only remembered him for that one thing, dying and being buried at sea. That must have been the first time I had ever heard of that for it to have stuck with me all these years. I would include this book in my future classroom so it might do the same thing for my students.

Sir Francis Drake was a pirate. He worked for the queen. The queen tried to make sure the other kingdoms weren't thinking that she was ok with Drake attacking other kingdom's ships. She didn't want the other kingdoms suspecting anything because she didn't want to go to war. While on voyages, Francis didn't want to kill any captains, for the use of navigation. Francis made about £50,000. About £40,000 went to the queen of England, but Francis got to keep about £10,000.

I really wouldn't want to travel with Drake. I don't want the risk of dying in every battle Francis wants to fight. The only reason I would want to travel with him is for the money. I also cant imagine not being on land for more that a week. I wouldn't know what to expect from the other crew, each crew has its own techniques. I'm also to lazy to remove barnacles from a ship. The only reason I would join the crew is to help my family.

Overall I only liked this book.I find it pointless to give advice on things after you died,like "don't get discovered or you won't rest in peace". How do we not get discovered? Do we build a time machine and kill the person before they discover you? I still learned off of it like that the Egyptians measure a heart to a feather, I bet no one has passed that test yet. I find it dumb how the Egyptian take people picked by the 'God' and put them into rule after 'god' dies,one gods don't die two if the person picked is a random rich Egyptian how can he be a 'god'? I don't blame them they were alive before AD even existed.
This book told me about a kid who became the ruler of Egypt.The kids name is Tutankhamen. He got 'advised' by other important people.He died in his young teens.One of our guesses is because he got a leg infection after he broke his leg. His proper supplies for his barrel were't ready.He was the 7th child but the first son. His father died when Tutankhamen was only 8. Tutankhamen had to marry a half sister to continue the royal blood.We wouldn't have known this if we haven't discovered his mummy.

This book has information about how a mummy was made and what people used them for around the 1800s.First the dead person gets embalmed ,which means the embalmers take their organs out of the dead person other than their heart.Then the embalmers incase the organs in four jars other than the intestines which the embalmer will put in natron( a salt mixture) for 40 days than place it in a jar.The mummy will also be placed in natron. After 40 days the mummy gets onion eyes,which is onions painted to look like eyes, and then stuffed the mummy with rags chaff and sawdust.The mummy also gets perfumed to not stink.After 70 days the mummy finally gets its burial.
This book was disgusting and made its point.It would take a lot of time,and work to preserve a dead body.I know I wouldn't want to live around those days.Also I would be to lazy to do all that work.I would rather be a pharaoh,lay around in luxury.The only part I would like in preserving the body is making the jars that hold the lungs,intestines , the liver and the stomach, the jars are made of wood and painted to make them look like a Egyptian god.

I love morbid kids' books. This one has a man screaming in a life ring on the cover. He's gonna die! haha. cute.

You Wouldn't Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy describes in vivid detail the mummification process. It shares info on what they would do to you once you were dead. If you were poor, sucks for you. Ok with money, great. Rich, wow! Nice coffin and linen wrappings. Towards the end of the book it says what happened to mummy's who were found. Some rich tourists bought one and threw it into the Nile River because it smelled bad!
It does share information in some funny ways and if you get grossed out is on you. I found some interesting things in there. For instance I didn't know That they pulled your brain out through your nose using a hook. That part I gagged at most. Honestly I think I am a Fiction Reader at heart. I don't mean to diss the authors because it had some humor I laughed at (hard to do sometimes), but in all I just didn't like it. I encourage others to read it but to learn the facts. Not for the gross

You are Francis Fletcher, a young preacher going on a trading mission to Alexandria, Egypt with Francis Drake as your captain, so you thought. You've heard stories of Drake's raids against Spanish ships and you don't know where this voyage will take you, to Egypt or around the world raiding and plundering. The real destination of the trip is revealed you are going to attempt to find the Northwest passage! When the ships anchor a Port St. Julian the crew is uneasy, Thomas Doughty is accused of plotting against Drake! He is beheaded and the ship your on, the Pelican is renamed the Golden Hinde in honor of Sir Christopher Hatton whose crest featured a hinde. Around present day Argentina storms hit and one ship sinks another is lost, the surgeon and gunner on your ship are washed away. After the storm around Peru you raid and steal a Spanish ship called the Cacafuego. Zárate the captain is taken hostage and every thing is stolen except for expensive clothes, which he pleaded he could keep. In the Palau islands (Indonesia) the ship is raided by natives but most are killed, Drake kills twenty with a cannon and we kept our riches from raids. Once you made it home Drake is knighted Sir Francis Drake and Queen Elizabeth profits 36,000 pounds (British money) from the trip, she lost 1,000 from investing in it and Drake keeps 10,000.
I think this book is pretty good, it gives history and a nonfictional first person story. If you like pirates and explorers this book is for you. It has several descriptive pictures along with reasonable captions. It has a lexile of 960 if you're looking for a high lexile interesting nonfiction book. I would recommend this book to people who don't like nonfiction because this book has action in it, like the beheading of Thomas Doughty. I give this book four stars its good but not great.

This book starts out with the birth of Tutankhamen (or King Tut) and his royal family. His father does not believe in the religion that has been passed done by other pharaohs. This leads Akhenaten (his father) to create a new religion. It then talks about the childhood of Tutankhamen. How he went to school, what he did at school and other things. Tutankhamen's father dies and Nefertiti (his mother) becomes pharaoh. Once he's nine years old, he is are forced to marry his sister in order to keep the royal blood and become pharaoh. King Tut's sudden death causes questioning. How? He was mummified and put in a tomb. The person who found his tomb was Howard Carter.

For my last book, I read "You Wouldn't want to Be Tutankhamen!" I rated it three stars. Why? This book was not as interesting as I expected it to be. I was hoping for more light on what he did in his daily life. I was also hopping for more information on his family tree. I liked the descriptions on the mummification. It was full of interesting and sometimes disturbing facts. The pictures in the book was a good explanation of the paragraph(s) that had topics. Overall, I am pleased that I read this book.

The book talks about why you wouldn't want to be Tutankhamen. Tutankhamen (or king Tut) became Pharaoh when he was only nine after his dad died. He had to marry his older half-sister, and changed his name from Tutankhaten, to Tutankhamen. Tutankhamen was forced to marry his older half-sister so that the royal families blood stayed pure.Tutankhamen dies in his teen years. Archaeologists still don't know the cause of Tutankhamen's death. It could have been murder or simply an infection that set after he broke his leg. In 1922 English Archaeologist Howard Carter finds Tutankhamen's tomb. It was the most famous archaeological discovery in the world.

I decided to give this book three stars. Why? Well I enjoined reading this book because it gives you good facts and ideas of how it was to be a pharaoh at the age of nine. It was also very pleasant to read a book that was considered short, but still gives you all the information you need. Another thing that made the book fun and interesting were the pictures.
One thing that I did not really like about the book was the ending. It just wasn't how I expected it to end. Still overall the book was great!

"You Wouldn't Want to Sail On the Titanic" is a delightful book, both informative and hilarious. Though it is clearly being aimed at a younger audience than what I am used to reading, it has an appeal to a wider age range then the three Titanic kids-nonfiction books I reviewed yesterday (see my reviews for "A Pig on the Titanic", "The Titanic Disaster: A True Book" and "Remembering the Titanic"). In fact, this book would really be ideal for middle schoolers and might even be of use to high schoolers, though mostly for the statistics and pictures.

This book is very engaging and full of delightful drawings, many of them based off of historical pictures. Also, the little asides from the people, such as the three Firemen commenting on the boilers on Titanic: "There are 29 boilers on this ship!", says one. While the second says, "Yes, each 16.3 ft. high!" And the third fireman's comments relate to his low compensation for his work with, "Bloomin' backbreaking work for $27 a month". The Handy Hints section is along the same vein, sly commentary on the times.

I really enjoyed this book and plan on adding a copy of it to both my personal collection and to my growing classroom collection.

"You Wouldn't Want to Sail On the Titanic" is a delightful book, both informative and hilarious. Though it is clearly being aimed at a younger audience than what I am used to reading, it has an appeal to a wider age range then the three Titanic kids-nonfiction books I reviewed yesterday (see my reviews for "A Pig on the Titanic", "The Titanic Disaster: A True Book" and "Remembering the Titanic"). In fact, this book would really be ideal for middle schoolers and might even be of use to high schoolers, though mostly for the statistics and pictures.

This book is very engaging and full of delightful drawings, many of them based off of historical pictures. Also, the little asides from the people, such as the three Firemen commenting on the boilers on Titanic: "There are 29 boilers on this ship!", says one. While the second says, "Yes, each 16.3 ft. high!" And the third fireman's comments relate to his low compensation for his work with, "Bloomin' backbreaking work for $27 a month". The Handy Hints section is along the same vein, sly commentary on the times.

I really enjoyed this book and plan on adding a copy of it to both my personal collection and to my growing classroom collection.

"You Wouldn't Want to Sail On the Titanic" is a delightful book, both informative and hilarious. Though it is clearly being aimed at a younger audience than what I am used to reading, it has an appeal to a wider age range then the three Titanic kids-nonfiction books I reviewed yesterday (see my reviews for "A Pig on the Titanic", "The Titanic Disaster: A True Book" and "Remembering the Titanic"). In fact, this book would really be ideal for middle schoolers and might even be of use to high schoolers, though mostly for the statistics and pictures.

This book is very engaging and full of delightful drawings, many of them based off of historical pictures. Also, the little asides from the people, such as the three Firemen commenting on the boilers on Titanic: "There are 29 boilers on this ship!", says one. While the second says, "Yes, each 16.3 ft. high!" And the third fireman's comments relate to his low compensation for his work with, "Bloomin' backbreaking work for $27 a month". The Handy Hints section is along the same vein, sly commentary on the times.

I really enjoyed this book and plan on adding a copy of it to both my personal collection and to my growing classroom collection.

"You Wouldn't Want to Sail On the Titanic" is a delightful book, both informative and hilarious. Though it is clearly being aimed at a younger audience than what I am used to reading, it has an appeal to a wider age range then the three Titanic kids-nonfiction books I reviewed yesterday (see my reviews for "A Pig on the Titanic", "The Titanic Disaster: A True Book" and "Remembering the Titanic"). In fact, this book would really be ideal for middle schoolers and might even be of use to high schoolers, though mostly for the statistics and pictures.

This book is very engaging and full of delightful drawings, many of them based off of historical pictures. Also, the little asides from the people, such as the three Firemen commenting on the boilers on Titanic: "There are 29 boilers on this ship!", says one. While the second says, "Yes, each 16.3 ft. high!" And the third fireman's comments relate to his low compensation for his work with, "Bloomin' backbreaking work for $27 a month". The Handy Hints section is along the same vein, sly commentary on the times.

I really enjoyed this book and plan on adding a copy of it to both my personal collection and to my growing classroom collection.

This book was interesting and funny. The cartoon pictures allowed me to take in historical information in a light-hearted way which would be appealing to students into the middle school years as well as elementary. This book would be a great source for struggling readers to use also. The funny illustrations and cartoon-like format would lend itself to students giving informational reading a chance. I liked the addition of a glossary and index as well.

Halfway into this book, I closed it. Reading this book was unbearable. The reader begins the book as a a new recruit named Marius Gaius who journeys through the life of a Roman soldier.

The narrative is filled with a bunch of cool facts, but I am not sure where the author was going with the illustrations. Each pages is filled with goofy cartoons about the Roman military and the life of a Roman soldier. The only thing is that these images lack humor and cause this book to be a turnoff.

This book seriously lacks something.

I really liked reading this book, it has lots of facts about what it would be like to sail the titanic, I like all the pictures and it also explains what it would be like to work on the titanic.

I've read this with multiple third grade classes now and they all enjoyed it. They are some gross readers. They relish the parts that are most disgusting in my eyes.

Even for my steeped in mummification and Egyptian history and mythology boy, there were some new things to discover. Like the fact you had to save up your own linen to be mummified.

Part of an excellent children's book series which covers a variety of topics! I would recommend this book to anyone who has a children interested in history.

Illustrations and the font of the book makes it an easy book to approach. Interesting take on the event. Puts the reader in one of the real character's position.
It is filled with wide variety of information.
Good for both girls and boys.
Was a bit too much though, as many non-fictions of these kinds are. Information were all over the place.

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-Uniform, present-tense, "you are there" discussions. These titles are somewhat jovial in their portrayals of ghastly subject matters, downplaying the horrors of human sacrifice, for example. Cartoon characters are about to have a tree fall on them in Railroad and find frozen bodies in the water in Titanic. In Aztec Sacrifice, "you" are a captured warrior and end up having your heart cut out as an offering to the gods. Suggestions are made as to why a warrior would not be too scared, maybe because an herbal potion could make him feel drowsy and peaceful. Every spread offers a "Handy Hint" box. In Railroad, "you" are advised to "Steer clear of the saloons and casinos-." In Aztec Sacrifice, it is suggested that "you" make offers to your city's guardian god for protection. Of the three volumes, Aztec Sacrifice is the most gruesome and will therefore appeal to a certain clientele. Because of its ever-popular topic, Titanic will have no problem finding an audience. Because of its less-gory premise, Railroad might need to follow on the popularity of the other two titles. Heavily illustrated, colorful, and far from dull, these titles will have little trouble grabbing readers' interest.
Anne Chapman Callaghan, Racine Public Library, WI
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