The Gypsy Game

Earlier in the year it had been the Egyptian Game. April, Milanie and their friends had pretended to be ancient Egyptians — creating costumes, rituals and reading upon it to make the game seem real. Maybe it was time for a change.

April had read an article on Gypsies and thought it could be fun and interesting. The whole gang agreed and got into it.

Toby contributes real Gypsy jewellery, his dad paints a life like caravan to make their area feel more real. But for some reason, there seems to be discord between all instead of the usual comradery as in the past.

Toby starts acting strange and when he suddenly disappears on New Year’s morning, the group realizes something must be terribly wrong. No one knows where Toby has gone, but all show more are determined to find out.

Family secrets come to light, along with some not so good history regarding the Gypsy world. Even still, the group is still concerned about their friend and come together to solve this missing person mystery. show less

It is always hard to assess how the target audience (I'd say in this case a 10 to 12 year old) will react to a book compared to an adult's impression. It’s also hard to know how sensitive a young person is to reading about real-life scary events happening to the characters. If a reader was enthused about 'The Egypt Game', then I am pretty sure 'Gypsy' will be thoroughly enjoyed, despite it being quite different to 'Egypt'.

There was not much elaborate game development with the gypsy theme and certainly no attempted assaults on any of the kids. The narrative is mostly about what happens with Toby. The game is more of a backdrop to the story as a focus to draw in the original 'Egypt' gang. The characters are very well done.

Not having show more read 'The Egypt Game' in more than 20 years, I'd forgotten how superbly Snyder writes from the childrens' perspective. I think that's what makes her novels so effective for her audience ~ it's really authentic.

I dropped 1½ stars because I felt the novel had a very weak ending. And I suspect that an imaginative child who so enjoyed the creation of the game in 'Egypt' will perhaps be disappointed at the lack of game development in 'Gypsy'. show less

Synder's "The Egypt Game" was one of my absolute favorite books as a child. "The Gypsy Game" is "Egypt Game's" 'sequel,' written several decades after its predecessor. It's a well-written book with a solid plot and I was amazed to see how well Synder recaptured all her characters after such a long leave of absence. I could easily see where the plot was going, but a child definitely would not, and I enjoyed the volume despite its transparency. This is definitely one of the best young readers/young adult books I've read in quite awhile.

I was disappointed with The Gypsy Game. While the first book, The Egypt Game, was full of Egypt-related adventures and activities, the majority of its followup centered on the missing character. Nowhere near as satisfying.

Sequel to The Egypt Game, this book is where they start to become "gypsies" doing gypsy traditions. Is it true that one of the kids in the group is actually a gypsy?

Advance copy.