Mummies, Pyramids, and Pharaohs: A Book About Ancient Egypt

by Gail Gibbons

Detailed illustrations and informative facts introduce children to the world of ancient Egypt through a review of sacred animals gods, hieroglyphics, monuments, and profiles of the pharaohs who ruled at that time.

Genres: Picture Books, History, Nonfiction, Childrens, Egypt, Ancient History, School

32 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

From gailgibbons.com: I was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1944. Even as a little child, I was always busy putting books together. Sometimes I would bind them with yarn to hold the pages together. I've always loved drawing and painting. I was also a very curious child. My parents tell me that I was always asking lots and lots of questions.

Later, I went on to the University of Illinois, where I studied graphic design. Then I moved to New York City, where I got a job doing artwork for television shows. Eventually I was asked to do the artwork for a children's show. While doing that show, some of the children asked me if I had ever thought of doing children's books. My mind immediately recalled how much I enjoyed doing that type of thing when I was a child. So I put an idea for a book together and right away a publisher bought it. That book was called Willy and His Wheel Wagon. Since then, over 170 books that I have written and illustrated have been published. The type of books I write are non-fiction books. This is because I love researching so much. I get to ask lots of questions, just like when I was a kid. I also get to travel and meet lots of interesting people. While doing research for my book Nature's Green Umbrella: Tropical Rain Forests, I traveled to two islands where there are tropical rain forests, Saba and Dominica. I also had a great time writing and illustrating the book. I get a lot of pleasure from doing the type of work I do.

Reviews

[Stacy Renee (LazyDayLit) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gail Gibbons covers Ancient Egypt with her fantastic illustrations!

We read this to supplement our ancient civilizations learning after reading Mummies in the Morning by Mary Pope Osborne. This nonfiction makes a great picture book resource to go along with that book!

[El]

=

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of Ancient Egyptian life for children

[Brittany Dalziel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personal Reaction: I think this book does a great job of given a broad overview of how the ancient Egyptians lived, what their beliefs and practices were, and the process of mummifying. This book was really entertaining and I like how so much is covered in such a short book but in a way that it is easy to understand and readers can walk away with quite a bit of knowledge about the ancient Egyptians. I really liked the illustrations in the book and the fact that they took up practically the entire page of every page; it really enhanced the reading for me.

Purpose: The purpose of this book is to be read aloud to children in Kindergarten through even 5th or 6th grade for informational/nonfiction purposes. I know that in 5th or 6th grade is when students typically start learning about ancient Mesopotamia and this book could be used as an introduction to ancient Egyptians. Although the author's credentials are not clearly stated, Gail Gibbons is an author of many children's books, a lot of which are informational books, and it is mentioned in the book that she won the Children's Book Guild Award for her overall contribution to children's nonfiction. The purpose of this book is to teach about ancient civilizations and has quite a bit of labels and captions to explain the illustrations, which also enhance and extend to the text. Some of the illustrations that enhance the text are showing inside of a pyramid, the amulets that the ancient Egyptians believed to have healing powers, and the process of mummifying. At the end of the book there is a page on ancient Egyptian discoveries which definitely adds on to the book and could interest students in wanting to do research on them and learn more.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published: 2004, Little, Brown Young Readers
Age: 4-8

Everything you want to know about ancient Egypt in a fun, easy to read picture book. Not too wordy, with the pictures labeled with the phonics pronunciations. Children can choose to read the labels, just the text, or both. The pictures do a great job visualizing the information in the text. Each page has a different colorful border around it. The last page has 15 short paragraphs with pictures of ancient Egyptian discoveries that are too interesting and informative to skip. Chock full of useful and mysterious information.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book for introducing the concept of Ancient Egypt to young children. Perfect for age 3 and up. It doesn't have any photographs, but every page has a large illustration that is instructive and related to the narrative. There were a few things that I didn't think were exactly right in the narrative and the depictions based on other books we've read, but I expect that's because ancient cultures have some room for interpretation. Overall, this is the most accessible and best book on Ancient Egypt that I've found for a young audience.

[Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review isn't very fair because I just love everything that Gail Gibbons does. As per usual, the illustrations are very pretty and the text is nicely informative. This book is a good introduction to Ancient Egypt although it would not be very helpful for someone writing a report. I like that she goes into economic and religious details as well as differentiating between the customs of the royalty and the poor people.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of our most favorite books for Egypt. An excellent broad overview for the elementary years. After reading lots of other books about Egypt, this being one of the last, I said "Finally, the book I wanted to use all along." We'll definitely use this again.

The pictures are all illustrations so if you want actual pictures you'll need a different book.

[Michelle Tempted By Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was ok. I provided some information, well a lot of information, but it was a bit more like a story than I expected. I also felt as if some of the information was really just opinions. Well that might be my opinion as well. I just hate that all of Ancient Egyption history is lost so a lot of it is just guesses. This is a good research book for Children's Elementary school standards.

[Charlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an introduction to ancient Egypt and skims the surface of information about mummies and Egyptian religion/mythology.

[Ruth Barone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of Egyptian customs and beliefs. Most pages have only a small amount of text, making the book perfect for early elementary readers.

[Vibhuti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book teaches about how Egyptians lived and how Egyptians mummified Pharaohs when they died.My favorite illustration was when they mummified the Pharos.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This went well with our Egypt theme. My 3.5 year old understood the concepts pretty well and we'll probably read again when he is bigger to get more value from it.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great intro book for new interest in Egyptology. I find the drawings fascinating. The information is pretty basic and well known for anyone who has done even a bit of research into this topic.

[Cecile · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are six or seven useful pages.

[melanie (lit*chick) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good companion for the younger one, while the older one learns about Egypt.

[Maria]

Gail Gibson always a winner. good maps and illustrations