McMUMMY - Hardcover

Byars, Betsy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670849952 ISBN 13: 9780670849956

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 1993

Synopsis

While looking after an eccentric scientist's greenhouse, Mozie discovers "McMummy," a huge plant pod with a human shape and strangely human habits. By the author of Summer of the Swans. Jr Lib Guild.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Professor Orloff has left Mozie to care for a greenhouse of experimental plants, with specific instructions for administering ``Vitagrow.'' As one particular ``pod'' grows to mammoth size, Mozie becomes apprehensive: Does it lure him against his will? Will it hatch? What is that humming? Accompanied variously by friend Batty and ``Valvoline,'' an aspiring beauty contestant for whom Mozie's mom is making a sequined gown, Mozie tends the pod until an epic storm crushes both the greenhouse and the pod, which--cautiously inspected with Mozie's deceased father's Swiss army knife--seems empty. But what's the leafy apparition that later disrupts the beauty pageant? This isn't quite fantasy- -rational explanations are available for virtually everything- -but, unfortunately, waiting to see whether it is, or what Byars will come up with instead, doesn't create enough interest to carry the story. Byars introduces several motifs without much development-- Batty's family is featured in the first chapter, then fades out, scientist Orloff never comes back, and Mozie's yearning for his father is unresolved. Even the comically tangential interior monologues begin to wear thin; Mozie just isn't as interesting as Bingo Brown, and his high jinks are tame compared to the Blossoms'. A minor effort. (Fiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Having agreed to tend Professor Orloff's greenhouse in his absence, Mozie finds more than he'd bargained for: a human-size, mummy-shaped pod that hums with energy and seems to call to him with a silent but compelling force. His dread of the creature--if that is indeed what it is--gradually tilts toward a profound sympathy, which in turn helps to put Mozie in touch with his sorrow about his father's death and to embrace the possibility of new life. Byars, who received the Newbery Medal for The Summer of the Swans , leavens her shivery tale with ample measures of comedy, evident especially in the antics of Mozie and irrepressible best friend, Batty, and in Mozie's and Batty's sparkling dialogue. Her touch for the memorably incongruous detail is in full flourish as well. The cast of supporting characters ranges from a dizzy but surprisingly intuitive beauty queen named Valvoline to a guardedly affectionate cat named Pine Cone who has literally fallen into Mozie's life--from a passing airplane--and deigned to stay. And beneath the heady brew of mystery and humor lie poignant insights about attachment and loss. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0670849952
• ISBN 13: 9780670849956
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160