Book of the Dead: TombQuest, Book 1

Alex, the main character, in chronic pain, collapses and nearly dies at the hospital. A boy in Egypt is captured in the night, with no mention of whether he is killed. Alex's mom is kidnapped. Some mentions of human deaths, but the main characters only see a mass grave of small animals. Two people get stung by scorpions that swarm through NYC. Some fighting with magic where air is pulled from a man's lungs and others are brainwashed into hitting another man with tools. Booby traps (knives, a pit), and one murderous mummy with a giant stinger attacks.

Parents need to know that Book of the Dead is the first book in the multimedia TombQuest series. Kids who read the series (five books are planned) can go to the website and do their own tomb quest with a character they create. There also are places on the site to write fan fiction, interact with the author, and chat on the message boards. In this start to the history-adventure series, kids follow the story of Alex, a terminally ill boy whose mother, an Egyptologist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, uses lost spells from the Book of the Dead to bring Alex back. In the process she unleashes some Egyptian baddies: mummies, scorpions, and evil followers. There's a kidnapping, a few scorpion stings, some dangerous booby traps, and magic fighting. Alex and his friend Ren see lots of small dead animals, get attacked by a giant stinger, and hear that people they don't know have been killed. Although this isn't as thorough a look at Egyptology as Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles series, it's an accessible introduction, especially for action-loving reluctant readers.