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Working Mummies
Get ready for giggles and ghouls in this celebration of hard-working mommies who also happen to be mummies. Here you’ll find a doctor mum curing raspy spooks with coffin syrup and a fang-filling dentist completely wrapped up in her dangerous work. You’ll also meet a librarian mummy who has her hands full with book worms, a writer mum conjuring spells for readers, and many others. With visual and verbal puns galore, this scream of a book helps illuminate the mysterious world where so many mommies disappear every day—and may also explain why some of them come home slightly unravelled.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published July 17, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
September 22, 2018
A really fun and non-scary read of mummies and monsters with clever word play and lively illustrations. Mommy mummies have to make a living too, and kids and adults alike will enjoy learning about a mommy mummy’s work in different career fields. This creative storyline has great rhythm and rhyme, making this a good read-aloud choice.
January 4, 2017
When your mommie is a mummie and has to go to work she may be doing any of these jobs. Great book for small children.
July 22, 2012
I would have liked a car mechanic or business executive to balance out all those beauticians, manicurists, teachers, and caterers. The dentist and factory worker were pretty good though.
AND Yahoo for the librarian (even though it is a traditionally female job.) We are never mentioned anywhere!
AND Yahoo for the librarian (even though it is a traditionally female job.) We are never mentioned anywhere!
September 27, 2012
Age: Preschool - 2nd grade
The puns and witty humor know no bounds with this story--just the way I like it. Amidst the various professions provided, the retro, busy artwork provide fun for several readings of discovery.
The puns and witty humor know no bounds with this story--just the way I like it. Amidst the various professions provided, the retro, busy artwork provide fun for several readings of discovery.
October 16, 2012
A spooky ode to working moms! This would work best around Halloween, but it could also appeal to monster fans year round. Lots of little visual jokes and wordplay!
March 24, 2013
Cute rhymes; appealing illustrations of mummies at various occupations; including one librarian. This would be a good choice for a Halloween or Monsters story time.
June 21, 2021
Mommies have all sorts of jobs, and so do mummies. They are doctors, waitresses, dentists, and teachers . . . just like your mommy, perhaps? While this is not a Halloween book, it would be extra fun during the spooky season thanks to Drazen Kozjan's genuinely frightful and delightful illustrations.
October 10, 2012
Tash has been home sick the past few days, so when I went to the library last night to pick up my hold (More Baths, Less Talking), I plundered the new shelves for kids. When you're not feeling well, picture books are a balm.
We both quite liked this. the text is pretty simple and straightforward: monster mothers have all kinds of jobs. Too many picture books still depict a world out of Leave it to Beaver. But that's not why we loved it. We loved it for the art which is rich and weird. In addition to the mummies there are vampires and witches and Frankenstein's monsters, and monsters that don't have names at all. And they're all going about their business, eating out in restaurants, working in factories, walking down city streets. The street scenes are particularly cool, with double=page spreads front and back showing a group heading off to work in the morning and coming home in the evening. It reminded me of an old favorite, Nightmare Cafe. It would make a nice pairing with Mommy?.
Library copy.
We both quite liked this. the text is pretty simple and straightforward: monster mothers have all kinds of jobs. Too many picture books still depict a world out of Leave it to Beaver. But that's not why we loved it. We loved it for the art which is rich and weird. In addition to the mummies there are vampires and witches and Frankenstein's monsters, and monsters that don't have names at all. And they're all going about their business, eating out in restaurants, working in factories, walking down city streets. The street scenes are particularly cool, with double=page spreads front and back showing a group heading off to work in the morning and coming home in the evening. It reminded me of an old favorite, Nightmare Cafe. It would make a nice pairing with Mommy?.
Library copy.
August 16, 2012
This is a fun picture book all about the things that working mummies do. I love the play on words and the illustrations are marvelous. I think kids will really get a kick out of this book. It is funny and there are lots of little hidden gems in the pictures.
September 6, 2012
Both a Halloween book - and a way to explain what working "mummies" are up to all day. Loved the retro-esque illustrations (the color palette alone! Wow!), the rhyme scheme, and the abundance of puns. Would use for a 3 and 4 year old storytime, and a Halloween story & craft.
September 13, 2012
Hee hee hee! I love puns, so this has just made my favorites list for this Halloween season. Also a good one to tie in with a career theme, or just to help kids with the idea of Mom or Dad going to work all day.
November 3, 2012
I randomly came across this book in the library during Halloween time and I'm so glad I did. I loved it. Very clever the way the author used the mummy to represent mommy. This is one I want to add to my personal library.
August 21, 2012
Illustrations and rhyming text introduce the many careers and professions of mummies, such as real estate agents selling haunted houses and dentists filing vampires' fangs.
August 28, 2012
As a working mommy and Halloween fan, I found WORKING MUMMIES very entertaining. My kids liked it too. Fun illustrations.
October 29, 2013
Fun Halloween book with all kinds of literary puns connecting working "mummies" to Halloween. I'm sure I'll read this to my kids for many Halloweens to come.
September 6, 2016
Cute book about career options!
November 1, 2019
I really enjoyed the illustrations, and it fit my mood to read it during October. Creepy but not scary, just right! I also like books featuring working mothers as a topic because I think it’s good for kids to see all the different roles their moms can play. I would have liked a few more varieties in occupations mentioned, but I suppose there’s limited space. Good book!
May 11, 2023
This is not only a super cute story about working "mummies," it's also hilarious. This will work well as a read aloud during spooky season! Love the detailed illustrations as well, there is so much to look at!
March 3, 2026
The attention to the smallest details in the background of the illustrations make it almost a scavenger hunt to find them. It makes the book so beautifully detailed. This would be a wonderful and funny read around Halloween... expecially for a mother to read to her children.
October 29, 2017
Daddy picked this one out at the library. He did a great job. We had to read it twice in a row. Colourful and fun illustrations. Imaginative.
September 14, 2019
A fun book about working moms with a Halloween twist
October 11, 2019
This was a really creative spooky book about mummies and their jobs. I really liked the illustrations. They were very fun.
September 18, 2021
Of all the occupations a mummy could have, coming home to her family at the end of a long day is priceless!
August 27, 2025
I could see myself incorporating this into a mothers Day activity !!
January 4, 2014
Since going back to work, Oz has had some anxiety. Now when I leave I hear a lot of "I miss you" and "Don't go"'s. It breaks my heart, but I love my job and it's only part time, so I know he'll be fine. And in the long run, it's important that I keep doing what I love.
So while I was shelving children's books the other evening I found this and it couldn't be more perfect for us. It's Halloween ghoulish, and it's talking about something on both our minds.
Overall, I love it. The illustrations are fantastic, the rhyming cute. I want it for my collection of children's ghoulish books. The only reason I'm giving it an "official" 3 stars is because the jobs are...well, a bit on the traditionally female side. I would have loved to seen a bit more diversity (a Police Officer, a Lawyer or Judge...).
And personally, I loved that it included a librarian (even though title is librarian assistant, but who knows? One day I just may get that Masters and official title!).
"This mummy's a librarian.
She has a great selection
Of rare and wiggly book worms
In her specimen collection."
That page alone was what I needed to share with Oz. And the illustration is of a Mummy with short hair and glasses. So pretty darn close to perfect.
So while I was shelving children's books the other evening I found this and it couldn't be more perfect for us. It's Halloween ghoulish, and it's talking about something on both our minds.
Overall, I love it. The illustrations are fantastic, the rhyming cute. I want it for my collection of children's ghoulish books. The only reason I'm giving it an "official" 3 stars is because the jobs are...well, a bit on the traditionally female side. I would have loved to seen a bit more diversity (a Police Officer, a Lawyer or Judge...).
And personally, I loved that it included a librarian (even though title is librarian assistant, but who knows? One day I just may get that Masters and official title!).
"This mummy's a librarian.
She has a great selection
Of rare and wiggly book worms
In her specimen collection."
That page alone was what I needed to share with Oz. And the illustration is of a Mummy with short hair and glasses. So pretty darn close to perfect.
May 2, 2014
I didn't like much about this book and I am a Halloween queen. This book is not the tender Where is My Mummy, even with the same creature and rhyming nature. And it didn't have the charm of Bella and Boris, stars of the 'opposites attract' plot. Lots of the careers—caterers, manicurists, realtor of haunted houses—could have been replaced by: genetic splicer and dicer (Frankenstein), (Spider) Web Analyzer, and writer of Normal genre fiction (the horror).
The kids put the ultimate nail in the coffin. Too many examples are available on their shelf right now of writers & illustrators with a better take on the friendly, assessable monster genre.
The kids put the ultimate nail in the coffin. Too many examples are available on their shelf right now of writers & illustrators with a better take on the friendly, assessable monster genre.
November 3, 2012
Great illustrations accompany this rhyming story about all kinds of spooky Halloween mommies and their day/night jobs, with a sweet ending to boot! The length and jokes are better suited to a school-aged audience.
August 28, 2013
This is a great book that adresses different jobs that mommies may have and how they can't wait to come home and see their children after a long day at work. The pictures are really cute and it's not scary. Great read!
August 4, 2016
This is a fun picture book. My 3yo loves spooky/Halloween things and this was his pick at the library. The story is silly and cute, the illustrations are good, and the spookyness is like a Halloween version of life for normal working mothers, so it's not scary for preschoolers.
July 18, 2012
Rhyming text. Preschool themes: monsters, jobs, mom
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews