UNDER THE MUMMY'S SPELL

When Peter Harring (12), a legend in his own mind, kisses a mummy at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a dare, he reactivates an ancient intrigue: He suddenly finds himself caught between a Pharaoh's daughter, Nephia, and Tachu, a semi-dead sorceress, both struggling for possession of a certain cat mummy buried behind an East Village townhouse. But Peter has help: a skeptical but willing friend; an intellectual younger sister; and a large, possessed dog, named (all too aptly) Pharaoh. The plot's constructed simply and set up heavily; Nephia arranges things so that Peter has little difficulty locating and recovering the cat (though sneaking it into the Met to reunite its remains with hers presents more of a challenge), while Tachu's mesmerizing apparition is no pushover either. A mild supernatural adventure with some comic moments. (Fiction. 11-13)