The Mummy Market

by Nancy Brelis, Ben Shecter (Illustrator)

The Martin children, Elizabeth, Jenny and Harry, visit their friend Mrs. Cavour in her extraordinary garden to complain about their unsympathetic housekeeper, The Gloom. Mrs. Cavour tells them about a wonderful market where children can find new mothers. The Martins like the idea of replacing The Gloom with a real mother, but discover that choosing a mother they really want is harder than they thought.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Fantasy

145 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Shannon Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this as a 10 year old girl. Found in the Raymond, NH library. This book has stuck with me all this time. My very favorite book of childhood, possibly my adulthood. I tried to find it 2 years ago and discovered the horror that it is out of print. How could a lovely classic be out of print? Is not Dickens' work still printed? Please, someone, re-release this work. I found the sole affordable copy on EBay, a tattered paperback that even in my careful possession is falling apart. I read to my son, 10, and he too loved it. The plot is three children who search a magical market for a new mother. Their road leads then, of course, to appreciate their actual life. A mysterious woman neighbor guides them. Her amazing garden is full of magic. The prose is delicious, of an adult level, and something I truly admire, as I'd prefer to not water things down for children. They can understand far more than we expect, so why not hit them with poetry early. This book should never be out of print.

UPDATE: Upating (5/3/18) to note that despite my attempts to reach out to who I think holds printing rights on this (HarperCollins, I think) a few times now and also sending a letter to the author's surviving daughter (not sure if she received it), the answer is still no to a repub on this. But I refuse to give up on this book. If you are a rights holder or descendant of the author reading this, please please please know that someone out there (me) desperately wants this book to be available again.

So I'll keep trying. Here's why....

I read an article from the author's daughter from around the time they made the movie of The Mummy Market (starring Sissy Spacek, titled Trading Mom). More on that below. As I recall, the daughter said her mother wrote The Mummy Market in three weeks, flat. From conception to completion. And that fascinates me, because the whole thing is just filled with so much raw beauty, poetic lines. And the resolution to the story is beautifully jagged and somewhat haunting, to the point that the resolution has stuck with me as a philosophical question I've been trying to puzzle out since I was ten. This, to me, is just plain genius writing. It means it is a raw story straight from the author's brain (much like a Dickinson poem) and it was not overly manufactured to make for literal and clean, linear reading (which is what they did with the film adaption (Trading Mom) by making certain changes that were infuriating).

On the movie. Now here's the main frustration I have. I could have tolerated the way they predictably changed the resolution (ugh), but they made another change that was even worse. One of the three children in the book is named Jenny. I identified most with Jenny. A girl, but a girl into camping and being outdoors all the time. She was tough. She was awesome. So instead of just keeping Jenny as Jenny, the film company turned her into a boy, who was into camping and being outdoors all the time. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Was it because they couldn't possibly put a movie out with two female leads and just one little boy (the younger brother)? Was it because girls back then couldn't possibly be into camping and being outside all the time? I don't know, but......the film could rectify this by remaking the movie and staying true to the book....and all this would help my endeavor to have the book republished.

I'll continue to chronicle my attempts here with updates as the years roll on.

I'm not going to give up.

UPDATE: JULY 15, 2022: Did a global pandemic lessen my endeavors to ensure the Mummy Market be re-published? Absolutely not. Just checking in here to report that I am still on this mission!!

UPDATE: AUGUST 26, 2023: I remain in pursuit. Posted on my Instagram today (shannonkirk_books) and tagged Harper Collins. It remains a travesty that this incredible book is out of print.

UPDATE: SEPTEMBER 26, 2025: I am still trying. If some rights holder decides to republish (PLEASE DO) I’ll write the intro and help with promo, gratis. Just putting this out in the universe and begging at this point.

[CLM · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book about three children who are searching for the perfect mother. I was reading it the day Man walked on the moon - I remember being so engrossed that I was annoyed when my teacher begged me to watch TV!

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I’d read this book when I was eight or nine years old, I’m sure it would have been a favorite of mine.

Reading it as an adult, I found it charming, delightful, and fun to read. I liked the three kids and their neighbor woman friend. I really enjoyed this book, and appreciated the fact that I did not guess how it would end.

The premise is creative and original. I found the end slightly weak but it would have satisfied me had I read it as a child, and this is a children’s book.

I’m sad to see it doesn’t look as though it’s been read/remembered by that many Goodreads members.

The included illustrations really add to the story.

[Kerith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read this since I was a kid, but I remember checking it out of the library many times. It is out of print and hard to find now, so I was excited to discover it at the library and read it again as an adult (and a Mummy). A totally new experience, and as an adoptive mom I found a whole new level to this story of three children searching for their very own mother. Very moving. I wish it weren't so hard to find.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having loved this story as a child, and searched for a copy as an adult, I was so excited to find a copy at a secondhand store. HOW I wanted to trade in my own mother at the age of 10! This is a gently funny children's tale with a deceptively simple message.

Such wonderful memories of Wednesdays which were half-days of school, when I could curl up in my deep windowsill with a pillow and blanket, pull the curtains closed around me, and read in my own tiny private world. Rainy days were best, with the drops rolling down the windowpane, and cool glass to lean my cheek against.

We had little money when I was a kiddo, and my great delight was being given a quarter, or amazingly, a whole dollar, to order from the Scholastic Books flyers through school.

In this manner, in my windowsill, I acquired stacks of children's paperbound stories, including The Mummy Market, Harriet the Spy, The Island of the Blue Dolphins, and others that are still worth rereading as an adult. I'm still searching for a copy of "Bridget," or "Brigit," author forgotten, from the 70s. If anyone remembers that story, please let me know?

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had thought I dreamed up this book; so I am so glad to find that it really did exist, and that I could have, and in fact, did read it in my childhood. A wonderful book that I remember reading when I was in elementary school, no doubt when I was mad at my own mother and longed to be able to get a new one. Too bad this book is no longer in print.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books as a child. I wish I had a copy of it, especially because it's no longer in print and buying a used copy will run you upwards of $60 these days. I would love to have a copy again, though.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely, charming book that I read on the recommendation of a co-worker, for whom it was a favorite book in her childhood. It's sweet, and definitely hits that sort of classic children's fantasy tone of just matter-of-fact fantastical things happening. All of the weird things that are happening, and no one blinks an eye, or questions why the children have this sudden succession of women acting as a mother.

The book loses points for the ending though. I'm down with a shrugging acceptance of enchantments and magic in their lives - I even like that old-fashioned fantasy tone! - but it was frustrating that it turns out the children are also under a spell, and no one particularly cares why or when or what caused it, or how to prevent it in the future. It was very odd. The story could just as easily have worked without that aspect to it, where the children make memories with the new mother, and it creates a new enchantment which solidifies her into their mother for real.

[Morgan Pocorobba · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my very favorite book as a kid. I read it over and over again. I don't know what it was - whether it was relating to some of the children's sadness or whether it was the joy and freedom the book offered at the prospect of 'choosing a new mother' at the mother market - the endless choices of loving characters and endless directions one can choose in life, but this book was one in a million.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book as a kid. I would love to find a copy to read to my kids or for it to come out as an ebook.

[Monty Cupcake ☠ Queen of Bloodshed ☠ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute concept.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harry, Elizabeth, and Jenny live with The Gloom. Well, Mrs. Hinchley. She wants them to keep the house orderly and have everything in its place. And that might mean doing things like flushing Harry's tadpoles down the toilet. So they go to ask Mrs. Cavour what they might do. She suggests the Mummy Market.
The Market is only open on Thursdays from three to five but it is possible for the children to get there. While Elizabeth is skeptical, Harry and Jenny decide to go the very next Thursday. When they get tehre, they discover a market full of women. Of course, the supply needs to be kept up. But how to get The Gloom to come there? Luckily, the information booth is very helpful and they give the children some forms akin to what the Internal Revenue Service uses. Housekeepers like Mrs. Hinchley will always follow the forms.
The children are set. They see one mother who bakes and one who sings and one who looks pretty. They decide to start with The Home-Type Mummy. It... does not go well. They then try "Mom" who is a sporty type. Next comes Babs who says she understands children because she's read psychology books. Finally they talk to Mrs. Cavour who tells them they are under an enchantment, as is their mother, and the only way to break it is to find their actual mother. But will they find their Mummy and will she be as perfect as they hope?
I only vaguely remembered reading this book from when I was young. I feel like there was a LOT missing from the story and I don't remember thinking that before but I was, ahem, younger then. It's fine but not like the well-developed books we have for children these days. Which makes sense since it came out in 1966.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I found out how to use the Internet Archive there has been a feast of vintage children's books round my way. Delicious!
I remember reading this book at least twice in elementary school when it first came out. How often I wished I could trade my parents in for more mentally and economically stable models who actually cared about me instead of making it obvious every day or so that I, the bookish youngest child of many should have been a strapping boy. But as the kids in the story find out, you never really know what you'll get, even when you take your pick!
Reading this at 50 years' distance, I hadn't remembered about the neighbour and her flower garden, but the book was as much fun at 60 as it was at six.

[Dixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice little story about a family of children who has a mean housekeeper instead of a "mummy" and who decide to choose a mother at the Mummy Market.

[Fabienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw the movie Trading Mom in the 90's and loved it. I never knew there was a book with the same plot!

I really enjoyed the book and the trip down memory lane!

[Julia L · Rating 5 out of 5]

My absolute favorite book as a child!

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another childhood favorite

[Dayna Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

For years I have wondered if I had imagined this market back in my childhood and tonight I decided to search online. I remember it so fondly!

[Sabah · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Good mothers are often rather like zinnias: a bit ordinary, but very dependable.”

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book 57 years ago and just read it for the second time yesterday. I loved it even more! Did anyone else think that the housekeeper was really the real mom, and the enchantment was that she was under the spell of trying to be the perfect housewife and not measuring up to impossible standards. The kids are under an enchantment of not remembering all the good things about their mom. In the end they all come out of the enchantment and find each other again. As an adult that's what I see in the story and was hoping to read other reviews describing this view. I'm having my daughter read it, since she's a young mother, still in the throes of raising small children.

[Just a Girl Fighting Censorship · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sweet and simple story. When I was younger I was in love with a movie entitled “Trading Mom”, little did I know it was based on a book, this is that book. The movie was hilarious and a little scary at times while the book stayed very matter-of-fact which was a bit strange to me. For example, the children do not find it odd that they have to mother nor any memory of a mother, okay I will accept that since they are under an enchantment, but what about the other children in the neighborhood and their parents, don’t they find it odd that three children are living alone while strangers rotate in and out of the home? I don’t know how I feel about the origins of the enchantment and whether or not I need to know why/how it happened. I suppose I can let all that slide and accept the story as a metaphor for the relationship between mother and child. Good book, not great.

[Relyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was visiting my friend's blog and she had posted about favorite books from her childhood. This one was mentioned so, of course, I had to seek it out. It was fun and funny and had an odd twist. I'm glad I read it, but I doubt I would buy it. Still, if you have the chance and are older than 40, you should read it. It will feel like other (non-classic) books that you read when you were a kid.

[Austen to Zafón]

WHY: Elizabeth, Jenny and Harry Martin live with an unsympathetic housekeeper, Mrs. Hinchley, known as The Gloom. Depressed, the children visit their neighbor to ask for advice and learn about the Mummy Market, a place where children can find new mothers. But they quickly learn how hard it is to find the perfect mother.

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trope: a family of kids sets out to find a mother as a replacement for their housekeeper. Fantasy hijinks ensue. I still liked it a kid. Compare to While Mrs. Coverlet Was Away and other Kindly Housekeeper trope examples.

[Jeannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this when I was a child and remember it to this day as a very enjoyable book. Having just found the title again I hope to share it with my son in the near future, if I can just get my hands on a copy (it is sadly out of print).

[Billie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read to our class in 6th grade but stuck with me enough that I read it to my children. Simple fun.

[Elizabeth Maddrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a constant childhood favorite that I got for Christmas (it's sadly out of print) - so nice to have it for my very own.

[peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember loving this book as a child. I am going to buy it for my daughter...