Review Detail

TALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN is an exciting middle grade nonfiction read about Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. The book gives some history about how we learned about hieroglyphs, how they were decoded, with a touch of their use in ancient times (such as counting). The rest of the book are stencils for the hieroglyphs, including letters, numbers, and various animals, objects, and similar.

What I loved: This is such an exciting book for curious children. The book gives a solid overview of the basics about what we know and how we have decoded hieroglyphs, but then also includes some stencils for children to write their own messages. Middle grade readers love the idea of secret messages, and given the lack of general use of hieroglyphs in modern times, this essentially gives them a whole new secret code to use. The book also includes some ideas for what they can write with the stencils, and readers will have a blast making these or their own messages.

The stencils work well and push in and out of the pages of the book easily. They are easy to trace around the edges and look great on paper. This is a great activity that can keep children busy for hours - and teach them something new along the way! This combination is definitely a win.

The front pages with information are well-illustrated and colorful, so they are quite attention-grabbing. The information is just right for the age group and focus on some key background information for the hieroglyphs. The level of information is good and will spark children wanting to learn more about Ancient Egypt and archeology!

Final verdict: TALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN is an exciting nonfiction book about hieroglyphs that combines educational material and stencils for a thrilling activity!