I Am the Mummy Heb-Nefert

Christine Linge is a past director of the Toronto & District Parent
Co-operative Preschool Corporation, a freelance writer, and a bookseller
specializing in children’s literature.

Heb-Nefert, now a mummy in a museum, recounts the story of her life and
death in this hauntingly beautiful book. The author does not avoid
describing the mummy’s physical condition, which both fascinates and
repels museum visitors. Through her touching and poetic life story, the
miracle of Heb-Nefert’s preservation becomes more valued; her corpse
becomes a vehicle of life that transcends the ages.

This magistrate’s daughter entranced the Pharaoh’s brother with her
sinuous dancing and became “a cherished wife.” Daily her handmaidens
dressed and beautified her. She and her “dear lord” would sail on
the Nile and eat luxurious picnics in the palace gardens. Throughout,
Heb-Nefert expresses touching tenderness for her “husband, swift and
strong.” She remembers her cat, Nebut, who was mummified with her,
keeping her company in the “silent twilight of the afterlife when day
changed to eternity.”

Heb-Nefert details the many steps of her mummification but never
reveals how she died. Her funeral is described over several pages,
giving full force to the sophisticated and reverential preparations with
which the Egyptians handed over a treasured individual to the “night
that follows night.”

David Christiana’s shimmering watercolors are a perfect marriage with
Bunting’s prose poetry. One can feel the warmth of the desert sands
and the coolness of the blue Nile rising from the pages. His images of
the living Heb-Nefert haunt the reader who gazes at her shriveled form.
Highly recommended.