By Kiran Jayasinghe
The book “The Egypt Game” is an amazing book. The author, Zilpha Keately Snyder, creates 6 main characters, three boys and three girls, who become friends,create, and play the Egypt Game. The characters are: April, Melanie, Marshall, Elizabeth, Toby, and Ken. There is also a mysterious supporting character, called the Professor.
April lives with her grandmother at the Casa Rosada, a old apartment building. Her mother is an actor, and travels all over the country. Melanie, April’s best friend, also lives at the Casa Rosada. She is dark skinned, and can understand April’s homesickness. Melanie’s brother, Marshall, is four and cannot let go of his stuffed octopus, Security. Marshall is smart and is the only child who notices the strange Professor watching the children play their game. Elizabeth Chung is in fourth grade, and just moved in to the apartment building. April and Melanie have no intention of inviting Elizabeth to their game, but one day they see Elizabeth sitting on the bench, and realize that she looks just like the Egyptian goddess Nefertiti, and readily tell her all about the game. April and Melanie clean out the old storage yard behind the professor’s junk shop. The yard becomes the land of Egypt. The friends hold ceremonies, make sacrifices, and write sacred records in hieroglyphs. Toby and Ken are best friends and are famous for their jokes at their school. They learn about the Egypt Game when they follow April and Melanie to “Egypt” on Halloween.
The game ends when a child is murdered. After about a week, the children are allowed to play outside again. But after a few days, when April and Marshall return to retrieve April’s books from “Egypt”, April is almost murdered herself. The professor rescues her. In the end, the murderer is found. I really enjoyed this book and, on a scale of 1 to 10, give this wonderful story a 10. “The Egypt Game” is and exciting, and terrifying tale that will capture your eyes for hours!
If you would like to buy the book, check it out on Amazon.