it’s bizarre how a book from your childhood can stick with you so much that you remember the details of the disturbing illustrations and the specific names of the characters and how your fourth grade class named the pet parakeet petey in honor of the bird in the book… and also how scary it was when you thought the professor was about to kidnap and murder the kids?!?? 😵

i for SURE had an egypt-fascination era as a kid (anyone else?!) — there was a cleopatra halloween costume, a hieroglyphics book i tried to learn how to write from, even a chicken mummification extra credit project that went horribly wrong in the backyard at one point… 🤢

but about the book, it definitely had a dark tone to it and some heavy/somber themes, and probably wouldn’t be one i’d readily share with kiddos now, but it’s an award winner and a classic, so what do i know!