The Egypt Game by zilpha keatley snyder

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

A blast-from-my-past! A book I really enjoyed as a child. I love all of Zilpha Keatley Snyder's books actually. A group of children begin playing an imaginative game about ancient Egypt. They're so involved in the game and its accompanying secrets, things get a bit of hand and they find themselves in real trouble.

0 0 Reply

Kuzu_Yarou

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

I loved this book as a kid. I recently learned there's a sequel, so I decided to re-read the Egypt Game before I read the sequel. I was worried that it wouldn't hold up to my childhood memories. I was especially concerned that the way the kids treat different cultures might come across as flat or awkward or, frankly, xenophobic or bigoted. I'm a lot more sensitive about that stuff these days. I won't champion this book as a bastion of cultural diversity, but I think it was okay / good enough in that regard. And the group of kids themselves are pretty diverse, right?

Anyway, things I love about this book:

1. the way it gives space for kids to be kids and figure out how you are growing up. i remember these feelings so strongly, being small and wondering about how you can learn to be big.
2. the power of imagination play.
3. how important rituals and mystery are, even/especially the ones you make up yourself.
4. egyptology, man.
5. the power of secret places!
6. the references to peace, freedom, equality and justice. kids need to hear that shit like it is everyday-worth-talking-about and it gives this book such a good 1960s California feel.
7. the kid friendships in this book are so good.
8. the kid-adult relationships in this book are also good!

I'm so glad I re-read it. I think the magic survived the test of time.

0 0 Reply

Chaosdreams

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

Let's get something straight. If you're going to publish a book for the public, in order for it to get a good rating, the reader needs to be grabbed with suspense or there needs to be some commotion in the story. Well, this book was the complete opposite. The first chapter was a little suspenseful, but after that it was just plain, ordinary, life. I wish I didn't waste all of my story time with this book. There are millions of better books out there, and I don't recommend this one to anybody.

0 0 Reply

Waspscreama

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

***Wanda’s Summer Carnival of Children’s Literature***

This book is one of the reasons that I love mysteries so much as an adult! I read it when I was 9 or 10 and I distinctly remember that it scared the pants off me!

It had just the right amount of creepiness for that age—a potentially sinister man whose storage yard that the children choose to play in, a secret club that they have to protect from children who wouldn’t appreciate the intricate Egypt game, and a murderer roaming the town and making adults reluctant to turn their kids loose to play.

Although I was raised in a Christian church, I had a very pagan soul as a little kid and I would have given my eye teeth to have friends who would have acted out Ancient Egyptian rituals with me! Plus, I had a vivid imagination and managed to get myself freaked out while playing other imaginary games with a neighbour girl. As an older child with no siblings to plot & plan with, I lived in my own head a lot and the research & planning of this role-playing would have been heaven for a little nerd like me.

The murders in this story barely made an impression on 10 year old me—I don’t remember that aspect at all. What terrified me was when the Egyptian oracle started to answer the children’s questions. That made my hair stand on end for several days, even after I knew how the book ended. I treasured the feeling that incredible things were possible.

Highly recommended.

0 0 Reply

Alfi706

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

Zilpha Keatley Snyder is a master of mood, as anyone who's read the evocative and sharp The Witches of Worm can tell you. The Egypt Game has mood going for it in spades; it's just not clear to me what else it has, I'm afraid. This book is a very slow burn, building on its mood gradually to... a not-particularly exciting climax, involving a barely mentioned antagonist with an identity we can't possibly anticipate as readers. It doesn't help that the resolution to a particular mystery is effectively given away in the first few chapters and on the book's cover. It's also guilty of my constant complaint, TME - too much epilogue. So why 3 out of 5? Because the characters are beautifully sketched, even those who don't get much screen time, and the story is so believable. The Egypt Game, itself, is so true to life, and so true to kids, and that's true of the book in general - I recognize these kids, they're believable and real, and the book does such a wonderful job of capturing the excitement of being a child and getting away with something. And it captures the main characters pain at being a discarded child with both sting and grace. It's worth reading for no other reason than for April and her friends and their bond together.

0 0 Reply

Kitsuneee_

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

I already had a sort of Egypt fixation when this book was read to me for the first time in 3rd grade. But this book took that fixation to a whole new level. For years, I read it over and over again. It...affected me. Because it implied that I wasn't the only dorky, bespectacled youth out there pouring over books about the mummification process (they pulled the brain out through the nose? awesome!), requesting that their mother construct 3D pyramind birthday cakes, and naming the neighbor's stray cat after her favorite female Pharoah (Hatshepsut). Strangely enough, though, not many 10 year olds had any interest in memorizing the hieroglyphic alphabet with me.

0 0 Reply

LaukNLoad

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

Very good! I love the suspense and mystery the author gave me. I kept wanting to read more and more. It sure was a page-turner. It intrigued me to read more of her books. I would have never thought that "orange haired, speckled, old man" was the murderer and behind all the crime scenes. I'm happy Egypt isn't gone forever. Overall, it is defiantly be one of my favorite books so far.

0 0 Reply

LapinTheRabbit

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 26,2025

I don't find the murdering of children a fitting, central topic for children's books. On top of that, it's a sad testament to the state of our current culture that the murderer can't even be recognized as a "bad guy." He is labeled as "mentally sick" and is conveyed as more in need of our sympathy than judgement. As if he was the victim and not the two children he murdered or the third he tries to nab.

The main character, a girl of ten, has no moral compass and leads her friends into all kinds of things. Including pretending they live in ancient Egypt. They play-act sacrificial blood rituals, worship of the gods, and prophesy and receive omens.

And of course, since the book is already dealing with fairly adult issues, why not throw in a dead-beat, Hollywood aspiring mom who dumps her daughter at the grandmother's so she can continue unhindered in her pursuits. Let's expose kids to the emotional trauma of that too, why not!

**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!

So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! You’ll see my updates as I’m reading and know which books I’m liking and what I’m not finishing and why. You’ll also be able to utilize my library for looking up titles to see whether the book you’re thinking about reading next has any objectionable content or not. From swear words, to romance, to bad attitudes (in children’s books), I cover it all!

0 0 Reply

Leave a Review

You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.

Game #1

The Egypt Game

zilpha keatley snyder alton raible

This edition

Melanie Ross

April Hall

Marshall Ross

Mrs. Ross (egypt Game)

Caroline Hall

Dorothea Dawn

More editions

About the author

zilpha keatley snyder

Readers also enjoyed

Community Reviews