I finished The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder last night.
Grade: B+
I bet I would have loved The Egypt Game if I had read it as a child. Coming from a suburb, I enjoyed stories set in more urban areas, which seemed so much more exciting and dangerous. I was also fascinated by Egyptology. This book would have been perfect for me.
Reading it from a strictly adult perspective, I often felt like I could see the cogs of the author’s brain turning, places where she made deliberate choices instead of letting the characters develop naturally. Though it felt contrived in a lot of ways (the balanced racial mix of the characters, for example), it had a solid plot and a satisfactory ending, which is more than I can say for a lot of books. Children who are just looking for a fun story will find it in The Egypt Game.
My copy of the book was already tanned with age and slightly warped when I started to read it. By the time I finished, it was starting to split. I am going to give it away and hope that it stays together long enough to earn a special place in some young reader’s library.