You Wouldn't Want to Be an Inca Mummy! (You Wouldn't Want to…: Ancient Civilization) Paperback – September 1, 2007

I teach kindergarten through 5th grade Spanish and I wanted some books about the Incas, Mayans, and Aztecs that my students would find interesting. This book, and others like it in the same series, fit the bill perfectly. I just read a few excerpts to get them started; soon they were clamoring to read it themselves. It's best geared for 3rd through 5th grade. It's humorous, but gruesome. The writing is in that busy cartoon style like the Magic School Bus that I personally don't enjoy much, but that kids seem to love. It's better for reading independently than as a group read-aloud.

My class loved this book! They couldn't believe that the Incas would parade a dead guy around for years...just so his loyal subjects could see that he was still "around." Tied in very well with our history unit on the civilizations of Meso-America.

Definitely not for 6 year olds!

My child, who is 8.5 years old, loves history and humour, so "You Would Not Want to Be.." series is perfect for him. He has discovered this series at the end of 3rd grade and is now trying to read them all, one by one. This particular book he read twice, and then summarized what it's about as following:You wouldn't want to be an Inca mummy! It's a very hard life and death.When you and your empire are in peace, it's fun, when you are not, it's not fun. You have to lead your men into war. If you lose a war, you will become a slave and then get killed. Do you still want to be one or not ? For me, I wouldn't want to be one!!!

While the information is not wrong, I don't think it is appropriate for children. "Handy hint"- "Don't get drunk!"; "Make sure your Chosen Women know their duties." Etc.

This book is so full of errors and misinterpretations, it must be considered a work of fiction. For example, in all the illustrations, the Incas are shown as having long hair, whereas, in fact, they wore their hair very short.