It's a Long, Long Way from May to ...

The Professor's Daughter by Joann Sfar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I was utterly charmed by the story, the illustrations, and the printing.  The cavorting with mummies reminded me of the Adèle Blanc-Sec books, but this story is slightly less gruesome than those.  True, there are poisonings and shootings, but this is a love story between Imhotep IV and the daughter of the professor who planned to put him on display.  While capturing the surreal, the exquisite drawings evoke the past with the regularity of their size and the monochrome treatment of the early part of the stories that gradually increases in color as the mummy's life becomes more ... fraught.


The plot itself begins almost halfway into the story.  We don't know how the mummy came to be found or was discovered to be alive - only that the professor's daughter has dressed him in her father's clothes and taken him out for what can only be described as a date.  Imhotep IV lives up to his proper English clothing for only a short time and then a taste of tea inebriates him and what started as a harmless outing turns into high adventure and courtroom drama!  This short book leaves you crying for prequels! 



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