This is the fifth book in the Goosebumps series and definitely a good one. It is about this kid Gabe, he is visiting Egypt with his parents. They run a refrigeration business and he came to Egypt with them. They end up getting called to Alexandria and Gabe can either go with them or stay with his archaeologist Uncle Ben he discovered new tunnels in a pyramid. Ben's daughter Sari is with him too and her and Gabe do not really get along. She basically thinks she is all that and is very competitive. Gabe stays with his uncle instead of going with his parents. Gabe is waiting in the hotel for his uncle to arrive when suddenly a mummy comes through the door. Gabe clutches his little mummy hand that he got at a yard sale. The guy that sold it to him called it a Summoner and it is now Gabes lucky charm. Gabe is terrified and it turns out to be Ben and Sari pulling a prank. Gabe goes with Ben and Sari into the pyramid that Uncle Ben is working in. Climbing down a rope ladder Gabe cuts his hand and almost falls but Sari saves him. When they reach the spot where the crew is Gabe sees a man who looks angry. This mans name is Ahmed, another scientist who warns Ben about a curse for defiling the tomb. Uncle Ben gets caught up talking with a female worker and Sari convinces Gabe to go off exploring with her. He stops to tie his shoe at one point and loses Sari. She pops out of an empty sarcophagus and scares Gabe. Ben finds them and is angry that they went off by themselves. They go back to the hotel and soon Ben gets a call saying 2 of his workers have been hospitalized. He goes to the hospital and Gabe and Sari sneak out to go to the museum. When they are there they see Ahmed he starts coming at them. They flee and when he finally catches them he says Uncle Ben sent him to get them. They leave with him and when they get in his car they notice he is driving away from the hotel. They bail out of the car and make their way back. When Ben arrives they tell him about Ahmed attempting to kidnap them. He tells them the 2 workers look like they have been scared half to death and wont talk. Ben and the kids head to the pyramid to investigate this curse. Gabe loses Ben and Sari when he ties his shoe again and falls into a pit. The pit has all kinds of mummies in it and he stumbles across a scorpion pit. He goes to use the beeper uncle Ben gave him but it smashed in the fall. Eventually Sari finds him and Ahmed shows up. He starts talking about how they have defiled the tomb of Khala and he must mummify them as part of the curse. Uncle Ben shows up and tries to talk to Ahmed. Ahmed hits him with his torch and stuffs him into a sarcophagus. He makes Gabe and Sari get into one too, waiting while to tar pit boils. Uncles Ben uses some escape hatch in the coffin and grabs the kids. Ahmed comes back and is fierce. Gabe pulls out the summoner as some last resort, Ahmed sees it and says it is the hand of the priestess Khala, fear in his eyes, all the mummies come alive. They chase Ahmed away and Gabe, Sari and Uncle Ben head back to the hotel. So it turns out the mummy hand is real after all. This is definitely worth a read and one of the better Goosebumps books.
As much as I love all things Egyptian, I have to say this isn't one of my favorite GOOSEBUMPS books. The Idiot Adult Syndrome runs a little too high for my liking in this one. For instance, right at the beginning, Gabe's father asks Gabe how he thinks the pyramids were built. His father then reminds him that the Egyptians didn't even have the wheel. Now I don't know if this was an editorial oversight or a comment on just how dumb Gabe's parents are but they're supposed to be successful business people. So I don't know. And Gabe's archaeologist uncle had some serious TSTL moments. Far too many for his own good.I get it. The kids are supposed to save the day and all but this one goes a bit too far to make the parents look incompetent where the kids would have to step in and save the day. It just ended up being a bit TOO silly for me. I can take some silly. I wouldn't be reading GOOSEBUMPS if I couldn't. But this one's at the top of the ladder.I also wasn't too thrilled with the characters so I didn't have that to fall back on. Gabe is a bit of a whiny brat and Sari is a spoiled brat. Neither exhibit real redeeming qualities at all and while there's some growth, I think it comes too little and a bit too late.It's good for the Egypt factor. It paints a great picture of the artifacts and the dig site and all of the mummies. It's got some good exciting moments where you don't know if the kids are going to make it or not (with RL Stine that's not always a given). But MUMMY'S TOMB isn't at the top of my GOOSEBUMPS list. Thankfully there are a ton more to more than make up for it.
I've never read a Goosebumps book and they are perennially popular, so I thought I should. Overall I thought the writing was fine. Not my favorite kind of story but I can see why kids like it. My quibble with this book: the main character, Gabe, has a favorite uncle, Uncle Ben, with whom he shares this adventure. But when we meet Uncle Ben, he's actually a bully. He knows Gabe scares easily, so he goes out of his way to scare him (he does this several times), and then laughs at Gabe for being afraid. Gabe hates it when his cousin Sari does this (she's a bully, too), but somehow he gives Uncle Ben a pass. I just don't like it when books present this kind of adult behavior as OK.
—Paula
In this series of Goosebumps, this is one of the better, scarier stories R.L. Stine has written. The lexile level is 620 and is suited for students in 3-5th grade. The main character is Gabe and it's written from his perspective in first point of view. This takes place in Egypt. In this book, Gabe goes on vacation with his parents to Egypt. They learn about pyramids and he becomes fascinated with it. When his parents go to Alexandria, he decides to stay behind with his Uncle Ben and his daughter Sari. He enters a pyramid and wonders if there is anything in there bizarre like mummies and such. Sari is someone who likes playing tricks on Gabe and every time she does, he falls for it. But the on time she tries to scare him, it could be for a good reason. When they become in danger of a mummy's tomb, they begin an adventure and try to save people. This was a good suspenseful book that had its scary moments which keeps the reader in their seats. The main idea would be horror and multiculural. I would recommend this book because it has a bit of humor, suspense, and a mix of things that kids would enjoy. Overall, the book wasn't too bad. I've read many of the Goosebumps books and there were definitely some that were better than this however I wasn't completely disappointed by it either. I liked the use of Egypt and introducing it because it's an easy way to learn about different countries and what it entails.It's a fun spooky book to read.
—Widad Hussein
The title of the book is "The curse of the mummy's tomb". The Author is R.L. Stine. The Genera of the book was nonfiction. There is a kid named Gabe who is on a trip with his dad. his dad has to go back to the last place Gabe and him stopped because hi dad forgot something. Gabe's uncle comes over to the hotel that Gabe and his dad are staying at. Gabe's uncle explores pyramids and finds mummies. Gabe's uncle took Gabe into a pyramid when he had to go to work. one day Gabe's uncle disappeared in the pyramid, who knows what happened next
—Brandson Sarrett
