Once upon a time when I was just a wee little El, I spent a lot of time in the school library. It was, not surprisingly, my favorite place to be. And I tried to encourage all my wee little friends to join me in the library, tried to make my own little book club, in fact. It was just going to be me and Lenora because she said she liked to read, but we were ten years old, just about to turn eleven, and already she had more important things to think about. Like boys.

In one last ditch effort I found the school library had two copies of a book by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. I truly don't remember which title it was, but I remember going through a "phase" with her books around that time. Perfect! I thought. Two copies - one for me, one for Lenora. I had her come with me to the library one day so we could each check out a copy, and the idea was we were going to read in all our spare time and then talk about it together.

Guess what never actually happened.

But I did my part. I took my copy to the playground each day at recess. I was committed. I was probably on the outs from the group I normally hung out with for something I probably didn't understand, so no one bothered me for being antisocial. Our playground had these "trees" which were actually utility poles stuck into the ground and then tires nailed into the sides of the pole, creating this... tree-thing... you could climb. No one ever spent any time on them so it was a perfect place for me. I climbed to the top of one and rested my book on the upper end of the pole. And that's where I sat, on my tire ledge, using the top of the pole as a desk to hold my book. I read all recess, the sound of the other children disappearing into the world below me, only the breeze in my hair.

Seriously, it's one of my favorite reading memories ever.

After reading the book (and being sad that Lenora actually read her copy), I must have somehow become friends with my group again because I don't remember any other occasions when I took a book into that "tree" like that.

If I read The Egypt Game at that time, I don't remember anything about the story. This would have totally been right up my alley, however. A highly imaginative young girl, April, befriends another highly imaginative young girl, Melanie, and together they create this game they call "The Egypt Game." They curate this game in an abandoned yard behind an antiques shop. Based on their shared interest in ancient Egypt, they fill the storage shed in the yard with what they imagine to be Egyptian paraphernalia, read books about hieroglyphics, and create an entire world for themselves. There's nothing quite like building an imaginary world at that age - I could see myself doing exactly that, if only I had friends who would cooperate. (I tried to get little Chad and Travis to play ThunderCats with me at other times during recess, but they turned that down.)

But, actually, that was the way with all of the Egypt Game. Nobody ever planned it ahead, at least, not very far. Ideas began and grew and afterwards it was hard to remember just how. That was one of the mysterious and fascinating things about it.
(p48)

The story is easy to read, which makes sense since it's, what, a middle-reader book? The plot is predictable but it doesn't make it any less fun to read. These kids have real-kid issues, whether it's an over-attachment to a stuffed animal to the feeling of being abandoned by one's mother by being sent into the world to stay with someone else - and they express real-kid emotions. An important plot point is that there is a murder of a child that happens off-page, an event that causes all the parents in the neighborhood to be on high alert and to set curfews for the children. This causes issues for the children who have come to depend on their game as a way of escape and growth. I was impressed and surprised that something so unsavory as "murder" is discussed in this book for younger readers, but again, this is something that can leave an indelible mark on children at this age, whether they fully understand the events or not.

I was also excited to read the diversity of characters. Melanie and her little brother, Marshall, are African-American; Elizabeth (and another boy that comes in later) are Asian-American; April is Caucasian. I remember even at that age race still coming up back in my day, and that was already a little over twenty years after this book was published. Somehow, in Snyder's neighborhood, none of that was an issue and that was damn refreshing to read.

All in all, this was a pleasant read, one I'm sure I'm revisiting but it seems new to me, so whatever. If I didn't read it as a younger reader, that's a damn shame, because I know I would have loved it. But considering the sort of voracious reader I was at that age, and considering I read other books by Snyder, I find it nearly impossible I wouldn't have read this at that time as well.

Man, do I want to take my book into a tree again now as an adult. But it's too effing hot out, so never mind.

This was *too scary* for the age group it targets. In fact, it was too scary for *me*! I just don't see CHILD MURDER as being a wise choice of a central plot point in a book meant for elementary school kids.

This is another Newberry Honor book that my son and I are reading together. I enjoyed it and thought it was a fun story. It starts out with two girls and their little 4 year old brother that love "Egyptology" so they create their own imaginative game to play in secret. As they bring new kids with new ideas, into their club including even a couple of boys, The Egypt Game evolves and takes on a life of its own.

The book highlights that its ok for kids of different races to intermix; that boys and girls can also learn and have fun together at the same time without being ridiculed; and that you shouldn't judge people that you don't know, based on rumors, hearsay, looks etc.

My son hasn't finished reading yet so I don't have his thoughts on the book yet but I'll update later...

In a university town in California, two sixth grade girls named Melanie and April came up with a great idea: when they were studying ancient Egypt, they created a game called The Egypt Game. Soon, their friends Toby, Ken, Elizabeth, and Melanie’s little brother Marshall joined them. Together, they built temples out of cardboard boxes and used various materials to make gods and goddesses. They even got pieces of clothing and unused jewelry to make Egyptian costumes. When they started asking their oracle questions, something fishy happened: It seemed to answer them by itself. The children asked more questions and it kept doing the same thing. Also, when April and Marshall went to the fake temple one night to get April’s math book, someone nearly killed them. During an investigation, the police arrested a young man who worked as a stockboy. But instead of sending him to trial, he was taken to the hospital because he was mentally ill. After all of this was over, the children had to clean up what they made and stayed indoors to be safe.
This story was so interesting. From the children’s Egypt Game, I learned about life in ancient Egypt, such as the temples, their jewelry and clothing, and some of the gods and goddesses they worshipped. I think that it would be a fun game to play. I also think that this is a good book to read, to learn some things about ancient Egypt.

I had forgotten how obsessed I was with Zilpha Keatley Snyder until we came across this book on the Newbery shelf at the bookstore. Then it hit me with such force I couldn't believe I had forgotten. I was obsessed obsessed. I read this book several times as a kid, and also the Stanley family novels. Re-reading this book with my kids I had such a strong recollection of how it used to feel to me when I read it. I remember thinking that if I just read it again I could somehow crack how to make my own Egypt Game, that there was some secret formula I was missing. Clearly it hit me in a deep spot. I was a big imaginer as a kid, and rarely found other kids who were willing to go as deep as I was, especially when we were 10 or even older and such things were not acceptable games anymore. I wanted April and Melanie and all of them to be real and to be my friends. Phew it brought me back.

My kids also really liked this. The chapters are the PERFECT length, and almost all the same length, which as a parent reading a chapter a night is absolutely chef's kiss. I know we've got a good one when they ask to read just one more chapter most of the time. I enjoyed rediscovering and rereading. It taps into the kids' imagination so vividly, centers their points of view entirely, and I liked the prose and the structure a lot.

This is an old novel, it was old when I read it in the late 80's and early 90's. It feels much older now than it did then. To me as a kid just some of the language the kids used felt outdated but everything else was pretty on point. I remembered enjoying how much there is a real threat of danger in Snyder's books, but wow there really is a real threat. A subplot here is a series of child-murders in their area, which is not at all the kind of subplot you run into nowadays, but felt very accurate to the way I perceived the world as a kid in the Stranger Danger era. It didn't seem to bother my kids, and the kids in the book mostly shrug it off as well.

Otherwise, the major issue you'll run into with this as an "old" book is whether the central concept of playing Egypt is a kind of cultural appropriation. Which I can't decide whether it's silly or not. After all, they're kids playing dress-up and pretend and playing Egypt is a whole lot better than playing cowboys or pirates or police all the other pretend games that are actually rooted in some really awful stuff. Snyder's cast of characters are racially mixed, though the two white kids are also the most outspoken ones. There is a bit of typical exoticism that will occasionally show up when Snyder describes Beth, who is Asian-American, it's your garden variety stuff around facial descriptions but I still noted it. And unfortunately Beth is a shy and quiet character who fulfills the Asian girl stereotype and who drifts almost entirely to the background by the end. It's not perfect, but I think it should be acceptable for most parents, which certainly cannot be said for other books of the time. (And hopefully my notes here are helpful to figure out which kind of parent you are.)

Great book! So many layers - family issues, friendships, imagination, social issues, and creepy suspense. April was such a great character, reacting to feeling abandoned by her mother with her creative use of false eyelashes. Thank goodness Melanie was her friend, and didn't let April wear those eyelashes to school!
I love all the details about the game, with everyone using their imaginations to recreate an Egyptian temple and all the rituals. All the relationships between the kids are so funny and true. According to the forward in the new paperback edition, Snyder based all the characters on real kids she knew when she was working as a teacher, and it shows in how well all the characters are depicted. I love this book!

I read this children’s classic soon after it was published when I was still a child. (Yes, I’m old!) I’m amazed at how much I had forgotten about this book that I adored. Or maybe, as I was 11 or 12, I missed a lot. Like any children’s classic, adults will love this novel on two unlikely friends, one of whom is a child cast off by her Hollywood starlet-wannabe mom. The Egypt Game serves both as an intriguing mystery novel and a reminder that “imagining games” have always been the best kind. The end is a total shocker!

Whether you read it as a child or not, adult readers will want to pick up this gem. And if you get the chance to listen to the audiobook edition with narrator Alyssa Bresnahan, so much the better. Highly, highly recommended.

10/10

This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.

When April Hall moves in with her grandmother while her mother remains in Hollywood, the first kids she meets are Melanie Ross and her brother, Marshall. April and Melanie appear to be quite different from each other, but they soon bond over a mutual fascination with Egyptian history. Each afternoon, the two girls and Marshall gather in the yard behind the A-Z Antiques and Curio Shop to play the Egypt Game. At first, the game consists of simple rituals and ceremonies which the girls invent and perform in costume. Later, as more members join their group, their activities expand to include writing in hieroglyphics and attempting to gain information from an oracle. When strange things begin to happen to members of their group, however, April and Melanie wonder how much of the Egypt Game is imagined and how much is real.

The Egypt Game was first published in 1967, and it was awarded a Newbery Honor in 1968. Like Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E.L. Konigsburg and Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle, it explores the power of imagination and the exciting adventures kids can have in their own backyards when left to their own devices. As I read this book, I kept thinking that it represents everything I like to see in a middle grade novel. These days, it seems like middle grade is treated as a stepping stone to YA, rather than as a reading level unto itself. In many situations, middle grade has started to refer to middle school, and the focus has shifted from tales of family, friendship and imagination to sordid stories about bullies, ostracization, dating, and family dysfunction. Reading The Egypt Game reminded me that there are many other topics of interest to kids in the 8-12 age range, and that even fifth and sixth graders still like to imagine and pretend. I’d like to see more contemporary middle grade novels living up to the standard set by this book.

There are lots of lovely details in this story that bring it and its characters fully to life. Marshall is never seen without his stuffed octopus named Security. April tries to impress people and simultaneously keep them at bay by wearing fake eyelashes, which she only sheds after she becomes comfortable with her new friends. Melanie enjoys cutting photos of people out of magazines and using them to tell stories which she hides in the pages of a special book on her shelf. Each character has a role in the larger group of Egyptians, but each is also an individual whose personality and quirks contribute to the overall story.

For a book going on 50 years old, The Egypt Game holds up really well. No matter how many years pass, children will always enjoy making up their own games and imagining themselves in various roles, and this book really celebrates these unique childhood experiences in a way that resonates with multiple generations. Though there is a sequel, The Gypsy Game, and I plan to read it, I would argue that The Egypt Game is pretty much perfect on its own, and I think it will be a tough act to follow, even for its own author.

one of my favorite books of all time. i reread this religiously as a kid. recommended to anyone with a good imagination who's ever found solace in his or her fellow outcasts.

A Newbury Honor Book? Really? While this was an interesting story, I found the children to not behave in the manner of actual children - speaking wisely beyond their years and with adult emotions - emotions we might like them to have, but that for the most part, they do not.

Interesting to note that the NY Times Book Review (quoted on the inside cover) says the author "[presents:] contemporary children as they talk and act on their own." Yeah, I don't think so.

The story, whlie interesting, is somewhat choppy. Months are covered by a single line, then many paragraphs describe a walk of a few blocks. Oh, and in the middle there is casually mentioned a child murderer in the neighborhood. A what?! Yeah, that's what I thought too. And then that plot goes away for 1/4 of the novel until returning at the end.

I'd say it's better than many YA novels I've read recently, but it was still uneven.

This started out really fun. I liked the kids and how quirky April was at the beginning.
Unfortunately it got a little boring for me by the midway point. I was a little disappointed that ‘the strange things’ happening to the kids was at the end of the book and not very exciting lol.

I’m not even close to the target audience lol, so I think I would’ve enjoyed this more as a kid.