The Egypt Game
Jan. 8th, 2011 07:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keladry_lupinI often go back to revisit books I enjoyed when I was a child, and Zilpha Keatley Snyder's The Egypt Game is the one I enjoy over and over the most.
Summary: Eleven-year-old April comes to live with her grandmother in a university town near San Francisco. She isn't quite sure about her place away from her mother, but she meets Melanie Ross, and they become good friends. With Melanie's little brother Marshall, they stumble upon the storage yard behind a neighborhood curio shop and decide it's the perfect place to recreate ancient Egypt. Soon there are six Egyptians instead of three. Everyone thinks it's just a game, but when strange things start to happen, they start to wonder if the Egypt Game has gone too far.
This is one of those books that reminds me of the best parts of being a kid. I get weighed down with work, paying the rent, filling the car with petrol, and all that grown-up stuff, but when I read this, I remember when a plank on a tree was a palatial treehouse and the farthest corner of our backyard was Mount Olympus. I get to be ten again. It's a well-told story and mystery told with humor. I recommend it for anyone over the age of seven; if the kids can't quite manage chapter books yet, Mom or Dad will enjoy reading it to them.
Notes: It was a Newbery Honor book in 1968. Also, there is a sequel, The Gypsy Game, which I would give three out of five stars.
Next up: I'm in the middle of Angels and Demons right now
Master List
Summary: Eleven-year-old April comes to live with her grandmother in a university town near San Francisco. She isn't quite sure about her place away from her mother, but she meets Melanie Ross, and they become good friends. With Melanie's little brother Marshall, they stumble upon the storage yard behind a neighborhood curio shop and decide it's the perfect place to recreate ancient Egypt. Soon there are six Egyptians instead of three. Everyone thinks it's just a game, but when strange things start to happen, they start to wonder if the Egypt Game has gone too far.
This is one of those books that reminds me of the best parts of being a kid. I get weighed down with work, paying the rent, filling the car with petrol, and all that grown-up stuff, but when I read this, I remember when a plank on a tree was a palatial treehouse and the farthest corner of our backyard was Mount Olympus. I get to be ten again. It's a well-told story and mystery told with humor. I recommend it for anyone over the age of seven; if the kids can't quite manage chapter books yet, Mom or Dad will enjoy reading it to them.
Notes: It was a Newbery Honor book in 1968. Also, there is a sequel, The Gypsy Game, which I would give three out of five stars.
Next up: I'm in the middle of Angels and Demons right now
Master List