My top ten picks for studying Ancient Egypt.
Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast. I'm Sonya Shafer.
I really enjoy sharing my favorite living books with you. It's like introducing
delightful old friends that I know will help and support you along your homeschool journey.
Today I will give you my top ten picks for studying Ancient Egypt.
These are the ten living books that are scheduled into the lesson plan guide called Genesis through
Deuteronomy and Ancient Egypt. We like to pair ancient history with Bible history, and I'll
cover my favorite Bible history books in another episode. Today let's focus on Ancient Egypt.
I'm going to mention books across all the grades. Some of them you can read aloud
to all of your students together; others you can assign to specific grade levels.
First is Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors by Lorene Lambert. This is my favorite family read-aloud for
this time period. It does a masterful job of helping you learn about the Ancient Egyptian
history and culture, but it doesn't ignore the rest of the world. It includes chapters on Ancient
Egypt's "neighbors," too, and tucks into each one a fascinating story about that part of the world.
Your students will discover why a tiny carved cylinder was so important to Ancient Sumerians.
They'll ponder the puzzle of a vanished people in the Indus Valley whose writing we still
can't decipher. They will hear how a stone finger pointing to the sky in Ancient Babylon
influenced our system of justice today, and why writing on turtle shells
assured a lasting dynasty in Ancient China, and many more stories of ancient civilizations. You'll
find a helpful pronunciation guide in the back (Some of those ancient names are challenging!),
or you can grab the audiobook of this title. And feel free to break up the
chapters into shorter sections if you need to. It's a great book for the whole family,
and it's available through Simply Charlotte Mason. I'll leave a link in the show notes.
The other titles I recommend for the whole family are supplemental books that elaborate on something
mentioned in Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors. That's your spine book; the rest branch off of it.
The Great Pyramid by Elizabeth Mann will help your family dig deeper into the topic of the pyramids.
Now, there are two books on this topic that are very similar: this one, The Great Pyramid,
and one just called Pyramid by David Macaulay. Choose one or the other; I wouldn't do both.
The Great Pyramid is in color with some photographs; Pyramid is in black and white
with exquisitely detailed drawings. Both tell the story of all that went into building a pyramid:
why it was built, how the land was chosen, how it was built, what was put inside.
Pyramid goes into more detail about the skills and equipment and engineering of the construction.
The Great Pyramid is written into our lesson plans, but really, you
can use either book. Both are highly recommended. Along those same lines of a book that elaborates
on how and why something was built is the book Pharaoh's Boat by David Weitzman. It is suitable
and interesting for the whole family, as well; but unfortunately, it is currently out of print.
If you happen to find it at your local library or used at a reasonable price, grab a copy.
Most people are familiar with the great pyramids as the final resting place of the pharaohs,
but not everyone knows about the magnificent boats that Cheops commissioned to be built and
buried near his pyramid. This book tells the story, skillfully interweaving the narrative
between the original ship-builders and the modern-day archeologist who discovered and
uncovered them. If you can't find a copy of this book, don't despair;
your children will still learn a great deal from all of the other wonderful books recommended here.
But if you happen to find a copy of Pharaoh's Boat, keep in mind that it's a good one too.
Now let me tell you about my absolute favorite book for first through third graders studying
Ancient Egypt: Boy of the Pyramids by Ruth Fosdick Jones. (In fact, I loved this book so much that we
brought it back into print. I'll leave a link in the show notes.) This is a gentle mystery, set in
Ancient Egypt, about a ten-year-old boy named Kaffe who has many adventures with his friend
Sari, a slave-girl. They experience firsthand the harvest feast, the fight of the bulls,
the flooding of the Nile, and the mystery of the pyramid's missing jewels. I appreciate how this
historical fiction helps younger students get a good feel for life in Ancient Egypt,
but it doesn't depend on a fear factor or sensationalize the mummies and gods and such.
It mentions some of the gods that the Egyptians worshiped in one chapter,
when the family goes to the temple to present a harvest offering, but myths and gods
are not the focus of the narrative. Your younger children are sure to enjoy this fabulous
historical fiction and retain a vivid mental picture of life in Ancient Egypt.
And while we're talking about historical fiction, let me tell you about The Golden Goblet by Eloise
Jarvis McGraw. This is another mystery set in Ancient Egypt, but it's more for fourth through
ninth graders. The events in the story are a little more intense, not as gentle as Boy of
the Pyramids. The main character, a young man named Ranofer, endures some hard situations and
difficult relationships, especially with his half brother, Gebu. In fact, Ranofer discovers a golden
goblet that his half brother stole from one of the great tombs. If he can prove that Gebu committed
this shameful crime, Ranofer will also be able to win his own freedom. Another great mystery
that will really give your fourth- through ninth-graders a "feel" for life in Ancient Egypt.
Also for your fourth- through ninth-graders, I like to recommend The Pharaohs of Ancient
Egypt by Elizabeth Payne. This book delves more into the individual pharaohs and their lives
and reigns. Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors talks about some of the pharaohs, but this book
goes more systematically through the main ones in chronological order. However,
it is not a dry textbook at all. This is one of the Landmark Books, a series that I've mentioned
in some of the other favorite book episodes. Landmark Books do a fabulous job of telling
a living narrative that makes historical people come to life in the reader's mind.
The chapters are long; you'll want to sub-divide them into shorter sections.
But if you combine the wider perspective of Egyptian culture and what was happening in
the world around Egypt, that's given in Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors, with this more detailed
look at the prominent pharaohs through the years, and toss in some historical fiction for "flavor,"
your students will have a wonderful living study of Ancient Egypt.
I have four more books on my list, and these are for seventh grade and up.
First, The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt by G. A. Henty. Some of you may recognize
that author's name. Henty wrote many, many historical fiction titles across a wide range
of time periods. You should be able to find them free online. The Cat of Bubastes weaves the story
of Amuba, a young prince in a neighboring country, who is captured and taken to Ancient Egypt.
Through his time as a slave there, the reader learns much about the culture and
climate and politics. When a sacred cat is accidentally killed, Amuba is caught up in
a chain of adventures. I won't spoil the ending, but I will say that a Hebrew girl
plays a supporting role in the storyline and a young Moses makes a cameo appearance. One thing
you will want to discuss with your student is the book's explanation that the multitude of gods
that Ancient Egyptians worshiped represented the various characteristics of the one true God.
It's a good discussion starter and one of the reasons I recommend this book for older students,
grades 7–9. By the way, if you want the audiobook version of this title, check Jim Hodges's version
at jimhodgesaudiobooks.com. He has recorded the entire series.
Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay—this is a completely different type of book from any that
we've talked about so far. Motel of the Mysteries is a humorous book that will encourage your older
students to think about how much we actually know about an ancient civilization and how much may be
conjecture. In the book some future archaeologists uncover the ruins of a motel and seek to grasp
our present culture based on what they find there. For example, they conclude that the big screen
in the room must be very important—possibly an object of worship—since all of the other furniture
in that room is arranged to face it. It's a great lighthearted way to start a discussion on both
the discoveries and the limits of our studies in history. I recommend it for grades 7–12.
Then for your high schoolers, grades 10 through 12, let me mention one historical fiction and one
digging-deeper book. First, the historical fiction. It's an old gem called Uarda
by Georg Ebers. Look for this one free online, and make sure you get both volumes.
It was originally published in two volumes, and there is nothing more frustrating than
ending up with only one of them! Two things I want to mention about Uarda:
first, it contains some good philosophical discussions between characters, which will
encourage your older student to think about those deeper ideas and spawn some good discussions;
second, it presents a picture of the various Egyptian gods and each one's priests and temples
in a way that I hadn't thought about before. It basically compares them to our current
college and university system, complete with marketing and competition and loyalty
and rivalry between the establishments—in an ancient setting, of course. That concept really
made Ancient Egypt come alive for me. It's not an easy read, and the author included footnotes
all the way through, explaining his reasoning and research; but once I got into the storyline,
it made a deep impression on me and I hope it will do the same for your high schooler.
Then the last title I want to mention is somewhat like an older-student version of The Pharaohs of
Ancient Egypt that I mentioned earlier. This book is Unwrapping the Pharaohs by John Ashton and
David Down. It includes extension photographs, good maps, and a timeline that seeks to align
the pharaohs with Bible events. The subtitle is "How Egyptian Archaeology Confirms the Biblical
Timeline." It's a fascinating book for those older students who already have the foundation of living
books on the time period and are ready for a deeper dive. I recommend it for grades 10–12.
So those are my top ten picks for studying Ancient Egypt. As I mentioned, two of the
titles are published by Simply Charlotte Mason: Boy of the Pyramids (recommended for grades 1–3)
and Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors (recommended for the whole family). And if you would like
daily lesson plans that will give you a schedule for reading these ten books
over a school year, check out the Genesis through Deuteronomy and Ancient Egypt guide.
I'll leave links for all of those resources. Thanks for joining me. I'll see you next time.