There may be no need to pay a ticket to enter but The British Museum does know how to sell things. The children’s book author and illustrator Lerryn Korda created for the museum a smart lift-the-flap board book called Mummy which was published by Nosy Crow last year.
The book is addressed to infants and toddlers 0-3 years old and it features a young child who is looking for her mummy in ancient Egypt. Nevertheless, she finds a different type of mummy behind the sturdy flaps on every spread; a mummy cat, a mummy donkey, a mummy in a tomb and finally after some pages her own mummy. The author plays a delightful pun with the word mummy to introduce young readers to the everyday life of ancient Egypt.
The book may also appeal to older children and adults as hieroglyphics of various words can also found behind the flaps besides the fact that the book contains information on artifacts that a visitor can actually admire at the museum. Undoubtedly, this makes the visit to the Egyptian gallery even more interesting, especially for children. The whole idea of the book consists an innovative way to make museums an engaging and agreeable experience for young visitors and it should be adopted by other institutions.
une petite bibliophile 