Egyptomania

Egyptomania
By Emma Giuliani and Carole Saturno
Published: October 3, 2017

Why we chose this book:
I have been fascinated by ancient Egypt since I was in sixth grade. Happily for me, T became interested in the ancient Egyptians when he was two and acquired Playmobil History figures of an Egyptian warrior, a servant, and Cleopatra. Laurence King Publishing provided a copy for review.

Mom's Review

An introduction to ancient Eyptian life and death.

I wish that I could have had this book as a kid, or at least as a teacher when I taught my sixth graders about ancient Egypt! It is a fabulous introduction to a wealth of topics. Children get just enough information to understand the basics of religion, economy, daily life, and geography. There are multiple lift-the-flaps and pop-ups. The art is eye-catching and in the ancient Egyptian style. The size is BIG. And the text appropriate to a grade-school audience. Put all of this together, and you get a fun book that can inspire children to learn more about history and an ancient culture. Ancient Egypt was always one of my students' favorite units. I know that if I had had this book in my classroom, someone would always have been paging through it.

Son's Review
(Age: 3 and 1/2 years)

While reading:
Son: The blue is the water. I know what the water is. Why is the Nile important?

Mom: That's a good question. How can we find out?

Son: Read!

Mom: So, why is it important, now that we've read?

Son: Because they need water where their homes are.
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Son: That would be a nice pool to swim in.

Mom: It says that they had refreshing pools with colorful fish.

Son: Like blue and orange. And I think that is a fish too.

Mom: That is a lotus.
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Son: I want to read about their tools.

Mom: Okay. We need to open this up...this is a scepter. And that is a cobra that goes on the front of the crown.

Son: Hey! That's what's on Cleopatra's crown!
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Mom: What do you like about this book so far?

Son: I like that it's a pop-up.

Mom: And, T, what's the favorite thing you've learned so far?

Son: We learned something that's really new. I'll show you. We learned what this [the ankh] is.
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Mom: You should recognize this. You see it at the yimmy [museum].

Son: It's a mummy. It's a dead body. It's covered with bandages.

After reading:
Mom: What were some interesting things you learned in this book?

Son: About this thing that goes on their crowns. It's a snake, but I don't remember the name.

Mom: It's a cobra.

Son, authoritatively: It's a cobra.

Mom: What else was interesting?

Son: That there was a monster god. If the people were bad, then he ate the people.

Mom: Well, not the people but their ba. That's like a soul. What would you like to know more about?

Son: I would like to, um, I would like to learn about...about what this tool is. (points to the flail)

Mom: What did you like about the book?

Son: I liked lifting all the flaps!

Mom: If you could go to Egypt, what would you want to see?

Son: I would see this [a lotus flower]. And I think we are going to.

Mom: Well, we can't go to Egypt right now, but is there anywhere we can go to see things from Egypt?

Son: Yes. The yimmy [museum].

We did go to the yimmy - Worcester Art Museum.

Finding the museum's artifacts in Egyptomania.

Reading about embalming and mummies next to the sarcophagus.