Reviews

• 好奇心と想像力でいっぱいの子供時代

  アメリカで優れた児童文学作品に贈られる賞の1つであるNewbery Honorの作品。エジプトや装飾に関する馴染みの薄い単語も出てきたが、表現は簡潔でわかりやすい。中級以上の英語学習者にもおすすめできる。 母の都合でハリウッドからOrchard Avenueにやってきたエイプリル。近所に住むメラニーとは、すぐに共通の趣味が見つかった−それがエジプト・ゲームである。エジプト・ゲームとは、エイプリルたちのエジプトごっこのこと。プロフェッサーと呼ばれる老人の店の裏に作った彼らの"エジプト"が舞台だ。彼らは本から得た知識や自らの想像で様々なエジプトの儀式を行って遊ぶ。 彼らのエジプトの外では、正体不明の"プロフェッサー"の存在や近所の殺人事件などが常に謎めいた空気を与えている。しかし、最後の最後にぱぁっと視界が開けるようにすべてが解決し、すっきりしたエンディングを迎える。 登場人物は、どこにでもいる普通の小学高学年の子供達だ。けれどもその普通さが彼らの魅力でもある。誰にとっても小学高学年は、自我をはっきり自覚し、世界を少し理解し始め、それでも自由奔放な想像力を備えた時期だと思う。そして、友達と秘密を作ったり、非日常的なことを考えては、実行に移してみたくなる。 そんな誰にでもある経験を、子供達の視点からそのまま描いている。事実、登場人物やストーリーの内容は、著者自身や著者の娘などがモチーフになっている部分が多々あるそうだ。 エイプリルたちと同じ世代の子供は、登場人物に自らを重ねることができる。 また、かつてエイプリルたちと同じ世代だった人々も好奇心と想像力に満ちた子供時代を思い出すことができる。読み終わった後、純真な気持ちになることができる作品だ。

• Este é O clássico de Zilpha... Pena que não há em Português!

  Um livro cativante... Mesmo para um adulto, nos meus 45, me sinto como um dos participantes do "Jogo Egípcio". A autora com sua experiência em magistério sabe desenvolver com perfeição os personagens de crianças. Os adultos, nem tanto. Mas para quê, se a história está sob o foco das crianças? É um clássico nos Estados Unidos. Se viesse para o Brasil, certamente faria também muito sucesso!

• Enjoyable story

  I had a tough job trying to find a book related to Egypt for a topic in school. This book was suitable for my Year 5 class and an enjoyable read frommy point of view, also!

• Great book

  My daughters school chose this book as her required summer reading between 5th and 6th grade. I had her read it aloud to me at bedtime so I could make sure she was responding to her packet correctly and it was a great book. It covered some historical Egyptian topics in a way that would appeal to younger children while also introducing some points that I wasn’t expecting. For instance, there is someone murdering children, there is a girl being left behind by her narcisstic mom, and there is a scary antique shop owner that people try to avoid. I was confused as to why these topics were being explored in a book that I expected to be only about Egyptian history but I think it was beneficial overall. This book allowed us to have a conversation about the importance of safety and the impact of judgement. We’ve had conversations on this topic several times but now that she’s older I think she was able to understand on a deeper level than she previously had and this book helped her gain perspective on that same level.

• Sweet childhood memories

  I was delighted to find this title here as this book was so important to me when I was growing up. I was one of those imaginative children just like the ones in the book, and I was obsessed with ancient Egypt also. It was wonderful to read the book again and share it with my husband. If you have creative children who love to play dress up and adore the ancient world, I would highly recommend it. It's just a very wonderful story with characters who are very real and are going through things that a lot of people go through today, especially kids. Highly recommended. I can't say that enough.

• Five Stars

  Great book. Year three class loved it and tied well with Egyptian topic.

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