The Egypt Game

When April moves in with her grandmother, she expects it will be quite boring - she is afterall, the daughter of a movie star. Soon though, April and her neighbor Melanie are spending most afternoons in a vacant lot playing "Egypt" - they have costumes, names, rituals, and have even involved Melanie's little brother Marshall as the prince of Egypt. Soon their game must stop because a child in the neighborhood has died...can the girls safely go back to Egypt or are they closer to the kidnapper there?

I LOVED the imagination in this book - I got very caught up in their rituals and stories and started to wonder if the book was partially fantasy and the girls actually got some of it to work. So clever, but a little scary with the death of a show more neighborhood child (at the hands of another neighbor). show less

A few years ago I undertook to read Zilpha Keatley Snyder's entire body of work, motivated in part by the fact that although she is an extraordinarily talented and prolific author, I had only read two of her books as a child. One of these was The Changeling, a book that has relentlessly haunted me from the time I first read it. This was the other.

Snyder's fourth book - which won a Newbery Honor - follows the story of two young girls, April and Melanie, whose unlikely friendship leads to the revelation that they are both fascinated by ancient Egypt, and to the creation of "the Egypt Game." Soon they are joined by other children, and the game begins to take on a life of its own. When eerie things begin to happen, the friends find show more themselves wondering if it is a game at all...

I can remember racing through this novel as a child, completely ensnared by Snyder's suspenseful plot; hoping, in fact, for a more supernatural explanation than the one eventually given. I could not have articulated then just why this book (and The Changeling) exercised such a powerful effect upon me. Reading as an adult however, I recognize Snyder's keen understanding of the role of the imagination in the lives of children - the games they create, the "daydreams" that give meaning to their lives. She understands the power of the child's inner life, and is never condescending towards "childish" things. I think I must also have found it refreshing to read a story with such a matter-of-fact interracial friendship, in which race itself was not the predominant concern.

Like many of Snyder's early novels, The Egypt Game is illustrated by Alton Raible. show less

I can't remember when I read this, but what I did remember was the dramatic Egyptian-inspired funeral for a small dead pet (I didn't remember what), including the illustration--and I'm impressed how good my memory of that illustration was.

What I definitely did not remember was how racially diverse this book was and how many quite realistic childhood/adult relationships are addressed. This must have been a pretty progressive book for 1967, when it was written: in a California college town, a white girl and a black girl become best friends and also befriend Chinese and Japanese American kids, the latter of whom is described as an "all-American boy". Okay, actually it was "all-American oriental boy"--the very dated word made me show more cringe--but at the same time, a Japanese American kid is being called "all-American" just 20 years after the US interned Japanese Americans during World War II. What is that if not progress, for the time?

The book definitely has problematic elements for today, but it seems like they're small enough that they could be revised. I haven't yet read the recent revised version of A Cricket in Times Square, but I do like the idea of bringing the language up to date--it would be much easier here in The Egypt Game.

Anyway, plot summary:

April moves in with her grandmother (who has had to sell her lovely one-bedroom to buy a less beautiful two-bedroom to make this work) with a promise from her aspiring-actress mom that it will only be fore a few weeks. April's a bit awkward from having grown up in an emotionally neglected Hollywood life, but kind-hearted Melanie still manages to connect with her over their shared active imaginations and fascination with ancient Egypt. With Melanie's younger brother, Marshall, and his stuffed octopus named "Security", in tow, they find a vacant lot behind they thrift shop run by a mysterious man known as "the Professor" (who has a scary reputation, though no one can remember why) and decide it's the perfect place to pretend to be Egyptian high priestesses, with Marshall as a young pharaoh. They set up a "temple" to Isis and Set and create elaborate ceremonies. School starts with no word from April's mom, but April and Melanie recruit younger, Chinese-American Elizabeth, who recently moved into the building with mother and two younger sisters. A child serial killer strikes and parents keep the kids inside, but they use the time to create elaborate costumes first for Halloween, and then for ongoing use. On Halloween night, they sneak away from trick-or-treating only to be caught by two "cool" boys in their grade who they worry will "fink" on them (the slang, which appears much more when the boys join the group, is hilariously dated)...but it turns out that Toby is as imaginative and creative as the girls, and Ken is a good enough sport to (hilariously reluctantly) go along for the ride. In addition to the already-mentioned funeral for and attempted mummification of Elizabeth's ex-parot (parakeet), the kids conduct a ritual to ask an oracle for advice...and are freaked out when they start getting answers. One night, while she's babysitting Marshall, April sneaks back to Egypt to retrieve a lost textbook and is caught by the child-killer. Only the Professor's timely intervention saves the day. All's well that ends well: the killer is sent to a mental hospital; April decides to stay with her grandmother for Christmas instead of joining a mom who only then remembered she had a daughter; the Professor confesses that watching the kids' fun has inspired him to a) give them keys to his backyard, b) get out in the world to acquire things for his shop; and c) hire Elizabeth's mom to run his shop while he's gone.

The Egypt Game is more than just fun and games: the kids deal with imperfect parents (April's absent mom, Toby's dad more interested in art than in his child's welfare), scary happenings in the wider world (the child-killer), people they don't understand (the Professor), kids of different ages with different strengths (imagination, observation, persuasion, moral support), people who don't always make sense to others (April, Marshall, and the Professor),

I'm sure other people have enumerated the reasons why this book is offensive: some words used to describe Elizabeth, Ken, and Melanie physically; the fact that the Professor's wife was "killed by the people she was trying to help", who were tribes in an unspecified place; and the way boys and girls are annoyed by each other just because they're boys and girls. (This may still be true in the playground, but I think books these days try to pretend it's not.) You can see Snyder trying to be inclusive, and maybe she was successful at the time. Sadly, it's a bit dated these days.

The Egypt Game has been banned for pagan worship/worshiping false gods. I've also seen in GR reviews that people object to kids playing with fire (part of why the Professor kept an eye on the kids), and to the serial killer element. Yeah, I think the story would have been just fine without the serial killer...but really, kids are being gunned down in classrooms, so I think they can handle a fictional serial killer.

I think what I liked best about The Egypt Game was how seriously it took the childrens' lives and concerns. I've noticed in some of the books for younger readers that I've read that there's a tendency to make things seem either too easy or too awful and oppressive. The Egypt Game found a nice balance, where kids can worry about killers but still want to go outside, be mad at their parents but happy with their friends, sad to lose something they love but excited to look forward to what might come next. Yes, adults would probably smile at some of the concerns that seem small--Melanie's sneaky theft of April's false eyelashes to help her fit in at school, the boys' and girls' insistence on only "accidentally" running into each other at school, Marshall's devotion to Security--but Snyder takes them as seriously as they deserve, given the small scope of the kids' lives.

This really is an excellent book. While disclaimers and discussions about what's out of date should go along with the talk about why we're fascinated by ancient Egypt and how adults aren't perfect, I'd still recommend it to kids.

Quotes & Notes

p. 48) [Set] was more than evil, and at times a lot more than Egyptian. For instance, at different times, his wicked tricks included everything from atomic ray guns to sulfur and brimstone. 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.
This book made me so nostalgic for all the games I used to play, either alone, with my sisters, or with a few friends. Some are downright cringe-worthy now, but they were so much fun!

p. 63) Mr. Bodler, the apartment building's janitor, creepily stands behind Melanie and April when they go to pick up Elizabeth on her first day of school. I was so sure he was the child killer. But then, maybe that just goes to show that it's not always the people you'd expect. Actually, I just have no idea why this creep is in this story at all.

p. 74) Some people accuse the Professor of being the child killer, though they have no particular reason:
The fact that the Professor sold old and cheap some of the things that Mr. Schmitt [who owned a general store] sold new and expensive was worth thinking about; but it didn't really prove anything one way or another.
I see you Snyder, commenting on dirty tricks to force the competition out of business. And pointing out that adults can be pretty mean for their own reasons.

p. 80-81) I really loved the PTA moms who all volunteered their husbands to chaperone kids on Halloween. Adults would really get some chuckles out of that.

p. 95) Melanie's parents are a source of wisdom about social justice: they're the ones who explain that a criminal might not be evil but might be mentally ill and need help, and they've attended a demonstration with Melanie and Marshall (though the demonstration was apparently for "things like Peace and Freedom" instead of, you know, civil rights, as would have been realistic for the time (unless Melanie doesn't mention civil rights to avoid making her white friend uncomfortable)).

p. 92-93) I do appreciate that Snyder keeps April and Melanie in the "boys are gross" stage instead of making them have crushes and stuff. Not every story needs romance!

p. 106) "Maybe we ought to tell the FBI [about Egypt]."
I do not buy for a minute that a Japanese-American boy would even joke about calling the FBI when his parents probably remembered being in concentration camps.

p. 115-116) Toby humorously recounts how his dad, an artist, made him an elaborate "statement piece" costume for Halloween and then got furious when Toby ruined it. Toby plays it for laughs, but I couldn't help feeling a little sad--his dad didn't ask him if he was okay, and his attitude reminded me of parents who want their children to be Instagram-worthy all the time.

p. 139-140) May I just say, I laughed out loud at Petey the parakeet's mummification process. But if you're sensitive about animals, you'll probably be appalled (even though Petey was dead of cat-causes before anything was done to him.) show less

When April moves in with her grandmother, she meets Melanie and Marshall Ross. April and Melanie become fast friends, discovering a shared delight in reading and imaginative games, and both become fascinated with Ancient Egypt. In a neighbor's abandoned yard, they begin playing the Egypt Game, using their knowledge of Ancient Egypt and imagination to create altars and rituals in an elaborate game. But their play is threatened when a local child is murdered, and there's a possibility that the guilty person is someone they know.

I chose this as my read for Banned Books Week, curious to see what sorts of rituals and descriptions might make someone react so strongly as to challenge this book just in the past year. I'd expected a fantasy show more where the gods came to life, and ancient rituals were described in detail. I'm still somewhat baffled, because what I found was a book steeped in imaginative play that reminded me of the games I used to play with my friends, cousins, and neighbors. In fact, reading the book became more of an experience of walking down memory lane, remembering how we played games based on movies or TV shows that we would stop to discuss who was getting eaten by dinosaurs (a la Jurassic Park), or which dinosaur we were calling on for super powers (*cough*Power Rangers*cough*). The descriptions of the kids' imagination, discussions, and power plays for making game decisions, were quite realistic. I was also surprised that a book written in the 60s has aged extremely well. Though I laughed at some of the kids' expressions ("Sheesh!" reminded me of another friend from my childhood...), for the most part their story could have been one that happened in almost any small town neighborhood. Also, the main characters are white, African American, Asian American, and more, quite a varied cast for its time. I seriously wonder what book the challenger was reading, because it doesn't appear to be at all like the one I read. show less

April comes to live with her dead father's mother, Caroline. April's mother, Dorothea, lived in Hollywood and was an aspiring actress with a boyfriend and not much time for an 11 year old child. April is somewhat of a fish out of water until she meets Melanie, a girl her age who lives in the same apartment complex. Between the two girls the Egypt game begins and they gather things to play it in the lot next to the A-Z junk shop run by a mysterious old man called the Professor. Wherever Melanie goes she must take her four year old brother, Marshall.
What I found terribly interesting was not only how these three, then four, then five children make up and played such a fascinating game given just their own imaginations and the things that show more came to hand, but also how the author wove into the story the very serious and politically loaded subject of the murder of a child. Just so you don't put the book down and not pick it up after that statement, none of the main characters in the story are the child that dies, but the murderer is a person who lives in the neighborhood. The author handles this very loaded subject very adroitly without losing the charm and humor of the main story...nice. It is well worth reading show less

The Egypt Game is easily Zilpha Keatley Snyder's most famous work, and there's little mistaking why: it's a fantastic story and expertly written. The book represents the zenith of a number of themes and ideas Snyder has worked with across almost five decades of a career, along with the introduction of a multiculturalism apparent in many of her later stories. This one has probably found its way into school curricula for that reason and two others - the "educational" nature of the children's game, and the rare introduction of a truly dark, dangerous undercurrent in the form of a child's murder - but that doesn't stop it being an extraordinary book on its own merits.

This is the book that, more than any other, really quickly demonstrates show more Snyder's adept skill at understanding the language and methodology of children. You have several very distinct character types - the lonely girl with the selfish front, the practical and considerate girl, the quiet and kind girl, the older-than-his-years toddler, the big jocks - working through problems together, whether those be real or totally imaginary. Snyder never talks down to us as readers (as usual, her lack of need for an overt narrative voice is remarkable), nor does she attempt to tell us how children should behave. She simply reports what they would do, quite naturally, and finds characteristic reasons to encourage or discourage certain behavior. At one point during their Egyptian rituals, one child suggests signing their names in blood, as she had read in Tom Sawyer. The children abandon the idea not because such an idea might be dangerous or unwise, but because they haven't got a sharp needle to hand - and besides, one of the children feels a bit squeamish over the idea. It's simple, but it indicates an authenticity of audience that Snyder can pull off like few others. She may have been a teacher, but there's nothing of the preachy "teacher" voice in Snyder's work.

Of course, more than anything, The Egypt Game is simply a great read. I loved it at eight or nine years old and was astonished how well it holds up after all these years. Several times I laughed out loud in the reading (as with Toby's Halloween costume), and more than once I found myself saying, "She managed to do that in a children's book?"

This is a really wonderful work and deserves to be enjoyed by many more generations of readers, both young and old. show less

The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder is a children’s realistic fiction book and combines some mystery to it, along with creative play to discover the theme of friendship and finding oneself. In this storyline, it trails main characters, April and Melanie, whose both character developments build as they make their own unique and creative world together. This in the process, allows them to start trusting each other and start to bond. Symbolism, foreshadowing, and setting are main elements in this story that grow tension and sensitivity. The isolated yard turns into a very important spot that mirrors imagination and risk. This book greatly aligns with the genre of coming-of-age fiction, along with psychological realism in it. This show more book relates to children and how they use their own imaginations to deal with change. I could relate to this book as a kid with the thought of searching for connection through mutual imagination and bonds. I rate this book a four out of five because it dives into a deeper theme, which young readers can connect to having their own creative imagination. show less