Cat Mummies

by Kelly Trumble, Laszlo Kubinyi (Illustrator)

Overview

Clearly written text offers an answer to the question of why ancient Egyptians mummified thousands and thousands of cats. An easy-to-understand introduction to ancient Egyptian history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547562643
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/16/1996
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	64
Lexile:	870L (what's this?)
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	10 - 12 Years

About the Author

Kelly Trumble is the author of Cat Mummies and The Library of Alexandria. She lives in Kirkland, Washington, where she has studied library technology, volunteers at an animal shelter, and is finally learning to play the piano.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 4-6Trumble explains and elaborates on a fact that most children's books just make mention of: Egyptians worshipped cats and mummified them using the same techniques they used to preserve their pharaohs. Extensive research is evident in the many original sources quoted and the lengthy bibliography. What emerges from this volume is a fascinating legend of how the Egyptians' devotion to the sacred animals became fanaticalpeople would rescue their felines from burning buildings and let their belongings go up in smokeand eventually led to their downfall. In 525 B.C., the Persians shrewdly released cats onto the battlefield; the Egyptians were so confused by trying to avoid killing the whiskered deities that they lost the war. Kubinyi's soft-focus watercolors work well to explain and break up the text. Footnotes, a chronology, a glossary, and a list of museums with cat mummies all reiterate the author's thoroughness in researching her topic.Cathryn A. Camper, Minneapolis Public Library

School Library Journal

Why did the ancient Egyptians mummify cats by the hundred of thousands? Why were there cemeteries with tons of charred cat bones? Trumble addresses these and other questions matter-of-factly in her first book, incorporating information on Egyptian myths, animal cults, cat worship, mummification practices, ancient Egyptian history, and 19th-century archaeological discoveries. Unconditional statements about beliefs ("Anubis, the god of tombs, lived in a jackal's body because jackals often prowled around tombs"), events, and practices will appear, to children, as cold facts instead of conjecture and speculation. Trumble states with certainty that Egyptians worshipped and revered their cats. Only in an end note, nearly 40 pages later, does she note that X rays of some cat and kitten mummies indicate cats were deliberately strangled. A throwaway line about priests sacrificing cats will not help readers understand the contradiction (or even hint to them that history, drawn from sources that are limited, incomplete, or conflicting, is full of such contradictions). Kubinyi's highly detailed, softly colored drawings bring immediacy to ancient events and objects. With its compelling topic, the book will work best when complemented by other, more comprehensive, sources on Egypt.

Kirkus Reviews

"Extensive research is evident in the many original sources quoted and the lengthy bibliography. . . . Kubinyi's soft-focus watercolors work well to explain and break up the text." School Library Journal

From the Publisher