Egypt: the Culture Book

Learn how ancient Egyptians built pyramids, made mummies and spelled with hieroglyphs. Modern Egyptian culture also is featured with special sections on religion, art, music and dance.

Children's Literature

This series of features a scattering of outstanding photographs and information but is unfortunately marred by incorrect captions and a frequent disconnect between photos and text. In this volume, for example, the familiar Temple of Luxor is misidentified as the Temple at Edfu. The culture of the pyramids and mummies dominates this volume. There are fascinating photos of the English unwrapping one mummy in 1898 and another mummy about to undergo a CAT scan! Young readers will see both hieroglyphics and modern Arabic, gatherings of Coptic Christian women as well as Islamic art. There is definitely much more attention paid to ancient than modern culture, but there is a sidebar about Naguib Mafouz, Egypt's modern day Nobel prize winning novelist. Glossary words are highlighted in the text and there are frequent section headings. 2000, Crabtree Publishing Company, Ages 8 to 14, $20.60 and $7.95. Reviewer: Karen Leggett—Children's Literature