Gr 3-6-In this hi/lo dose of zombie mummies, 10-year-old girls who visit the new Mayan Mummy exhibit at the Metropolitan History Museum are mysteriously disappearing all over town. Fifth-grader Maya Naranjo and her friend Will Perez discover a connection between the museum visits and the unsettling disappearances and devise a plan to investigate. Maya pretends to succumb to the mummy's trance and "sleepwalks" to the museum where she is almost captured by the malevolent ruler of Chichen Itza, who is posing as a security guard. Maya is able to free the mummy's spirit and the missing girls are returned to their families. Prothero's humorous black-and-white illustrations provide comic pauses during tense scenes, a plus for readers who are just delving into horror. Savvy readers will see the holes in the plot and may be frustrated by the unresolved explanation of the mysterious security guard but striving readers will feel triumphant for having conquered a chapter book and a new genre.-H. H. Henderson, Heritage Middle School, Deltona, FL
No such thing as bad press
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Quick question: Is this a good review, or a bad review? It is on SLJ.com right now. Please consider that I am the writer of this book, not the illustrator. I won't at this time comment on the "plot holes" the reviewer mentions and that do not in fact exist.
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9 Responses to “No such thing as bad press”
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Hmm. That is a definite tough call.
February 4, 2009 at 1:36 PMRather, it's not a BAD review, it's just not really a review, per se.
February 4, 2009 at 1:37 PMThe folks at SAB are psyched about the "triumphant" bit at the end, because that is what librarians want to see in a hi-lo.
February 4, 2009 at 1:40 PMBut still. Tell 'em it's cute, or funny, or something! Sheesh.
M-- I think you'd especially like this one, of all my work for SAB. It has been called Buffy-esque. Big shock.
It's pretty generic - I didn't takeanything negative from it.
February 4, 2009 at 7:47 PMum, well. yeah.
February 5, 2009 at 5:20 AMDid you attend the scbwi conf in NYC???
and it DIDN'T sound negative to me.......:-)
February 5, 2009 at 5:21 AMI did attend, VM, but I wasn't around much beyond the seminars and a couple of speeches. I was in town with and to see the family, so I was pretty busy with all that.
February 5, 2009 at 6:47 AMFor SLJ, this is a GOOD review! Congrats! This reminds me of one they gave one of my books for being less-than-brilliant for the true Shakespeare scholar but "a good bet" (I'm totally paraphrasing from a long-ago memory) for the reluctant reader getting exposed to Shakespeare for the first time. (Which was the whole POINT of the book.)
February 14, 2009 at 1:12 AMHi, Lisa. Thanks for reading and commenting!
February 14, 2009 at 8:30 AMI'm trying to get past the "plot holes" thing, and have accepted this as a positive review.
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