What a difference 52 years can make! Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, is an old favorite of mine, but its pre-Women's Liberation Movement depiction of Hatshepsut is hardly sympathetic. Here the female Pharaoh is shown in a more positive light.

Maia, like Mara, can read and write. Unlike Mara, she's not a slave. She's merely treated as a servant by her maternal uncle, a priest of Amun, and his wife. Her solace is her brother, Seti. Seti, who is going to school to become a scribe, is Maia's teacher. Luckily, she's quick to learn.

Maia accidentally discovers a crime being committed by a priest. Her public revelation of that crime wins her the friendship of a woman who lost one of her daughters, Nesty, and the enmity of the priests of Amun.

Paneb, one of those priests, wants to hide the crime. Paneb has the gall to tell Maia that she's a ...'traitor, bringer of dishonor to the sacred temples and their glorious priests'. The fool doesn't realize that he is the true traitor and that attempting to hide the crime one of the priests committed brings much greater dishonor to the temples and priesthood.

Maia displays courage despite her fears, more courage than I have. She needs every bit of bravery she can summon because Paneb is a vindictive enemy.

The historical note about Hatshepsut and ancient Egypt was interesting, although I doubt that the slaves would have agreed with Ms. Turner's opinion about what kind of place Egypt was to have lived in. ( )