An ancient Egyptian feast!
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Adele Geras has written lots of great books for children and adults. I've just been reading her illustrated story book Cleopatra. It's a feast of words and images about the last of the Pharaohs and her Roman lovers and enemies, as told by her handmaiden Nefret. I couldn't put it down! Recommended for anyone who's fascinated by pyramids and mummies. Aren't we all?
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A lovely way to interest junior age readers in this fascinating ancient culture.
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This is a great introduction to the ancient world: a fictionalized biography of Cleopatra with a wonderfully enticing cover set with `real jewels. How could any little girl resist such a treasure?
The story tells the life of an Egyptian Queen through the eyes of her ten-year old maid, Nefret. It's smashing from about age seven because a child can relate easily to Nefret and to some extent them feel that they're experiencing the life of their ancient counterpart. As well as general flavour of life and culture from Ancient Egypt, her journal gives child-friendly coverage of some of the less tasteful incidents in ancient history, telling of events in the royal palace, Cleopatra's marriages and liaisons with the Romans, first Caesar and then Marc Anthony. The pages are rich with appropriately papyrus/sandy coloured pictures which are realistic enough to give a flavour of Egypt yet are suffused with light humour.
As well as the diary (about two-thirds of the book), there's additional general information on what happened next, childhood in ancient Egypt, Cleopatra's family tree, the river Nile etc. as well as a timeline and maps. This is written at the same level as the rest of the book - easy to read through, rather than a myriad of heavy facts.
In all, a very well-put together package to give a young reader a snapshot of Egypt's past.
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