The Egypt Game (Yearling Newbery)

Rating:
Summary: (Un)Commonplace Magic
Review: A recent thread on rec.arts.books covered people's favorite children's books. I hadn't heard of this one, and the title intrigued me (I'm a sucker for games), so I went out hunting. April Dawn (not her real name) is the daughter of a Hollywood wannabe who comes to the small town of the story to live with her grandmother. She makes friends with the girl down the hall. Sound a little boring? Well, it's not, because Snyder has a touch of authenticity rare in children's books. Most of the ones that I like tend to exaggerate the adults or the children's experiences, such as the recently read James and the Giant Peach or classics like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Snyder's world is wonderfully real and alive. The children are sweet and cruel to each other and adults; the adults are understanding and sick. Why, there's even a "serial" killer in this book. Frightening? Yes, but because we see this through the eyes of children, the scary aspect quickly changes to the drudgery of not being allowed as free a rein to play.

And play is what the Egypt Game is about. April and her friend Melanie are imagineers of the first stripe. Their game is drawn from their mutual fascination for things Egyptian and the convenient vacant junk lot behind the A-Z store. The game is perfectly portrayed--how children can make and follow their rules, but also how they stop in the midst of the game to redefine or add new rules as well.

I prefer children's books with a little magic in them (or, in the case of Narnia, a lot of magic), so I was delighted to read one in which the magic was of the commonplace sort rather than otherworldly.

Rating:
Summary: As wonderful as I remember
Review: I read this book when I was in the fourth grade. (My best friend and I were reading through the shelf of award winners.) She read it next. As soon as she finished the book, we set up our own game, a cross between the Egypt Game and what we'd understood from her older sister's class production of Macbeth. We had hours of fun playing that way, and I loved having a book that showed characters who played imaginatively. (And there aren't that many role models who don't spend all their time on their computers or on the organized sports field these days. See the preceding review from the person who said that she didn't like the way the characters used too much "ammagination." I ordered this book recently to read aloud to my third graders, and they loved it! Now there are several Games going on in our neighborhood. The book was as good as I remembered it.

Rating:
Summary: The Egypt Game
Review: The Egypt Game is an exciting book. In the beginning of the story is boring. After you read on it gets better. The story has six main characters, April, Melanie, Marshall, Toby, and Ken. April is Friends with Melanie. Melanie has a brother named Marshall. Toby and Ken join later in the game. They're like any other boys, but at times they're a real handful. Ken always says,"Sheesh", Marshall always takes an octopus with were ever he goes, and April also moved to live with her grandmother Caroline. There's also a Professor who has a store called: A-Z Antiques Curious Used Merchandise, but no one knows what A-Z means so is it a real mystery after all? solve the puzzle by reading The
Egypt Game!

Rating:
Summary: A fun read
Review: The Egypt Game is one of my favorite children's books with an Egyptian theme. My absolute favorite would have to be The Cat in the Mirror by Mary Stolz which I highly recommend. It seems that so much of the best Egyptian themed fiction (especially fantasy) is written for children. Another recommendation that comes to mind is Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander

Rating:
Summary: probably the best reveiw ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: The Egypt game is really excellent. My classmates think it was bad, but I think it was great! the book could use a picture of the alliigator stone; the pictures were good nonetheless. I think the book should end right there. Then in the sequel, they are all grown up and they're kids are playing the gypsy game. I would give this book a 10/10. this is because it had a good plot, and I love good plots.I don't think a book about Egypt could be anymore exciting than this!

Rating:
Summary: A murder attempt at Egypt Headquarters
Review: The Egypt Game. When I first looked at this book, it looked kind of creepy, so I read it. When I was reading, it was creepy! The author used great words that make the book scary, but also fun to read. An Exciting, mysterious game that started with a bunch of kids who were bored with the same old neighborhood games. They were having fun playing Egypt in the storage yard of an old store, until the town had a crisis. There had been a murder, so none of the kids could play outside because their parents didn't want their kids to risk being murdered. Will the Egypt gang ever get to play in Egypt again? Find out in this awesome, page turning book, The Egypt Game. I recommend this book to all readers who like a little bit of fright in your reading.

Rating:
Summary: My Review
Review: This book isn't a book I would perfer to read again, because at the begining it is really boring and finally at the end of the book it gets good. It's about a girl named April who moves to California and meets Melanie and Marshall. They go to an old lot and make a place they call Egypt. They meet two mew members, Ken and Toby, and let them join. They get to keep the yard afther a accident and they continue the game of Egypt would have changed the begining so it would be more excited.

Rating:
Summary: The Egypt Game
Review: This was a good book, even with some minor (and major) flaws. Basically, the premise is this: April Hall, a girl from a rich family is sent to her grandmother's while her mother goes on tour as a vocalist. She starts out, like the multitude of seemingly identical (at first) characters in a lot of books that often come from this sort of beginning, a snotty brat angry at the world for no good reason. Her grandmother attempts to make her socialize, and eventually she gives in and visits the apartment of the Rosses, a family of African Americans. She acts extremely snobby to their daughter, Melanie Ross, who eventually makes April quite a bit less snobby. In the Professor's, a man who runs an antique/junk shop, back yard, they discover several Egyptian looking objects. They are both very interested in Ancient Egypt, so they begin the Egypt Game. Eventually, Melanie's little brother, a new girl in fourth grade, and two prankster boys in their grade all become involved in the Egypt Game. These other four, while all of them are vital to the plot, are certainly not as vital as April, Melanie, and the Professor.

My only two issues with the book was the fact that a lot of it was spent with the children constantly living in fear of a murderer who remains at large for around ¾ of the novel (keep in mind that the murderer comes into play about ¼ of the way into the book, and that's up until extremely late in the book.)
Also, the fact that no character except April, Melanie and the Professor are very deep. The brother is childish, the girl not at all deep, and indeed almost never talked about, one prankster is perhaps right on the line, in my opinion, of becoming a major character; if he got just a bit more development, he would be. The other boy is the shallowest of all characters, as he is just'well'there. He's just an arrogant guy that does absolutely nothing and says 'Sheesh' a lot.