| "HOW THE AMAZON QUEEN FOUGHT THE PRINCE OF EGYPT"
Author: Tamara Bower
Interest Level: Lower Grades (K-3)
ATOS Reading Level: 5.1
AR Points: 0.5
Publisher Recommended Age: 7-11
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Atheneum
Book Type: Hardcover
Pages: 40
Book Description:
Queen Serpot rules the Land of Women, where the Amazon women live free, without men, and hunt and fight their own battles. But one day their peace is broken. An army of Egyptian soldiers is approaching their land, led by their prince, Pedikhons.
Pedikhons has heard stories of these warrior women. Now he has come to see them with his own eyes -- and to challenge them to combat. But the brave Serpot and her women are full of surprises. Can woman truly equal man in strength and courage?
This story of love and war is based on an actual Egyptian scroll from the Greco-Roman period. Hieroglyphic translations of key phrases, intricate paintings in the Egyptian and Assyrian styles, and extensive notes about both cultures enrich this fascinating, untold legend.
Book Reviews:
School Library Journal: "Hours of educational pleasure are pretty much guaranteed." Grades 3-6
Diana Craig Patch (Metropolitan Museum of Art: "Tamara Bower has done an admirable job of transforming the ancient Egyptian story of Prince Pdikhons and Queen Serpot into a lively engaging format...Ms. Bower's interpretation of this little-known tale is linguistically sound...Her scrupulous attention to details from the ancient visual sources makes her own artwork highly believable."
Kate Millett (feminist activist and author): "(A) remarkably beautiful book, complete with magnificent hieroglyphs. It is also a 'true' story in that it tells of the struggles of the sexes, but does not forget the fact that they also fall in love with each other."
Book Awards:
- Children's Africana Book Awards (1992-2006)
- USA: ALA Amelia Bloomer Project
- USA: ALA Notable Children's Book Nominee
- USA: Bulletin Blue Ribbon
- USA: Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best
- USA: NYPL 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing
About the Author:
Tamara Bower has been fascinated with ancient Egypt since childhood, when she was drawing hieroglyphs all over her school notebooks.
She was trained in archaeological illustrations in the Egyptian Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and later made illustrations for the Egyptian Department at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. She has worked with numerous learned scholars and has traveled to Egypt to work on excavations in Abydos with the University of Pennsylvania. She also writes and illustrates children's books.
Ms. Bower lives in New York City with her cat, Mazie. |
