The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
"The Egypt Game" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder is a children's novel that combines adventure, friendship, and the allure of ancient Egypt. Set in a diverse university town in California, the story follows eleven-year-old April Hall, who reluctantly moves in with her grandmother while awaiting a letter from her glamorous mother. As April adjusts to her new life, she befriends Melanie Ross, and together they create "The Egypt Game," an imaginative play inspired by an old geography book and a mysterious bust of Nefertiti they discover in a shed. The game grows to include other children, fostering a strong bond among them, regardless of their different backgrounds. However, the narrative takes a darker turn when a stranger threatens April, leading to a shocking revelation linked to local tragedies. Celebrated for its engaging storytelling, "The Egypt Game" emphasizes the importance of libraries and reading while showcasing a rare diversity among its characters for the time it was written. The book received critical acclaim, including a Newbery Honor, and remains a beloved classic in children's literature.
Subject Terms
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
First published: 1967; illustrated
Subjects: Family, friendship, and race and ethnicity
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Mystery
Time of work: The mid-1960’s
Recommended Ages: 10-13
Locale: Orchard Avenue, in a large university town in California
Principal Characters:
April Hall , a thin, blond eleven-year-old girlMelanie Ross , a slender eleven-year-old African American girlMarshall Ross , Melanie’s four-year-old, sturdily built brotherElizabeth Chung , a shy nine-year-old girlToby Alvillar , a popular sixth-grade boy who makes people laughKen Kamata , Toby’s best friend and a popular sixth-graderThe Professor , the mysterious proprietor of the A-Z Antique Store
Form and Content
The Egypt Game has short chapters with enticing titles that encourage its young audience to continue reading, especially if they are interested in ancient Egypt or become caught up in the mystery and excitement of the Egypt Game. The black-and-white illustrations by Alton Raible that accompany the text are effective. Most of them are of the children and depict what is occurring in the chapters.
The setting is a large university town in California with a diverse population that lives along Orchard Avenue, with the children attending the same elementary school. The neighborhood is composed of shops, small homes, and old apartment houses.
Eleven-year-old April Hall’s glamorous, show business mother sends her to live with her paternal grandmother, whom April refers to as Caroline. April, who never knew her father because he was killed in the Korean War, resents having to live with Caroline and is anxiously awaiting a letter from her mother telling her to move back home. April looks upon the move to Caroline’s apartment as temporary.
Caroline works at the university library and tells April that every noon until school starts, she is to go to the Rosses for lunch. They live in the same building, the Casa Rosada apartments, and have a four-year-old son and a daughter about April’s age, who will come to get her. Melanie Ross knocks at the door and sees April with her blond hair piled on top of her head, wearing false eyelashes and her mother’s old fur stole. After lunch, Melanie shows April her library.
As April is looking at Melanie’s books, she pulls out an old, dull-looking geography book, and paper figures fall out. Melanie and April make up stories about the figures and come to enjoy each other’s company and their imagining games. The Egypt Game begins when April finds a new book at the library about Egypt and a young pharaoh.
The mysterious Professor, the owner of an antique store, looks out a window of a storeroom at the back of his shop to see the two girls enter his property by moving a loose board in a fence. They are followed by Marshall, Melanie’s four-year-old brother who is always accompanied by Security, a stuffed toy octopus; he is struggling to get through the fence. The girls find a lean-to shack containing a cracked and chipped plaster bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti, which they consider an omen. They call the shed “the Temple” and refer to the area as “Egypt.” Soon, Elizabeth Chung, a nine-year-old who moves into the Casa Rosada apartments, and Toby Alvillar and Ken Kamata, sixth-grade classmates of April and Melanie, also become players in the Egypt Game.
One night, April is taking care of Marshall when she realizes that she has left her math book in the Temple, and she and Marshall go to retrieve it. April is nervous about going out at night and moves the board the wrong way. It makes a noise, and she is attacked by a stranger who attempts to strangle her. The Professor calls for help, and Marshall identifies the attacker, who confesses to have murdered a boy and a girl from the neighborhood.
Critical Context
The Egypt Game was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1968. In 1967, it received the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, the George G. Stone Recognition Award of Merit, and the first prize at the Spring Book Festival. It was on the American Library Association’s List of Notable Books and the Horn Book Honor List for 1967.
The idea for The Egypt Game stemmed from what Zilpha Keatley Snyder refers to as the “Egyptian period” of her childhood, when she became totally absorbed in anything having to do with ancient Egypt. The setting and the characters of the six children came from her years as a teacher in Berkeley.
The diverse cast of ethnic characters was considered rare for the period in which Snyder was writing. The six children become friends, paying no attention to race or color: April and Toby are European American, Melanie and Marshall are African American, and Elizabeth and Ken are Asian American. The occupations of the African American parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ross, are not stereotypical: Mrs. Ross is an elementary teacher, and Mr. Ross is a graduate student at the university who is planning to teach poetry and literature. Mr. Ross calls April “the cruelest month.”
Snyder used the public library as a child to help feed her imagination. Throughout The Egypt Game, the reader will note the importance that Snyder attaches to libraries and reading. Caroline works at the university library. April and Melanie go to the public library almost every day, where they are beginning to be called the Egypt Girls. Toby also uses the library; when playing the oracle in the game, Toby says he looked up the main words in a big book belonging to his father called Somebody’s Famous Quotations.
Snyder had an active imagination when she was a child and has carried it into her career as an adult writing for children. The Egypt Game is often considered her best work.