My kids might not have have noticed, but I found it a bit out-dated. Still, a good read. Might look for more of her books and try again.

A story I read with my kids about a group of kids who find a vacant lot and begin to play an imaginative game set in Ancient Egypt there.

I saw this recommended- it is a youth book, and quite charming. As you can imagine, a very quick read. I was surprised that it brings up the murder of children.

When Melanie Ross meets the new girl in the neighborhood, April Hall, she's not sure they will have anything in common. After all April seems a bit odd, starting with her huge fake eyelashes. But the girls soon discover they share a love of ancient Egypt and can almost read each other's minds as they create an elaborate space and imaginative story line devoted to several Egyptian gods. Add a mysterious professor, a couple boys, and an oracle; this book builds to a suspenseful climax.

Very good children's story about imagination and learning, with a somewhat scary event in it.

Loved this one as a kid.

A cute fun read! A group of diverse kids pretending they are in Egypt. Unexpected friendships form and a good reminder that kids when left to their imaginations can go to places like Egypt. It’s also insightful on the importance of grandparents, friends and the sense of home.

The Egypt Game for me is all about imagination.

I read this with Amber (11), and it was a perfect book for her. Story-telling, playing games that last for months and months are right up her alley. She does it on her own, but I think part of that is we’re more careful now. The Egypt Game was first published in 1967 and it was a different time. Kids seemed to have more freedom, for better or worse. I mean breaking into a storage shed and playing with “ceremonial” fire would not be tolerated now. I need to know where she is, who she’s with, and usually it’s in our yard by herself.

I sometimes think that all the tv watching and video-game playing don’t encourage creativity and imagination. There’s nothing like immersing yourself in a world of your own creation when you’re a kid. I think a lot of grown-ups have forgotten the feeling, but Snyder captures it perfectly. I like that this book encourages those things, along with the joy of learning new things through books and taking what you’ve learned to enhance your life or your fiction.

Amber loved the story. She was little leery about picking it up at first, probably because it was not a book she’d heard of before and a new author to her, but once we got into it, she kept begging to read more every night.

This was my favorite book in elementary school. I believe we read it in 5th grade, and I loved it so much that my sister and I collected cast-offs from our neighbor’s yard sale and created our own “Egypt game” in the backyard.

Revisiting the story as an adult was fun. Some of the content hasn’t aged well. Most children don’t have the level of freedom to wander their cities the way that the protagonists here do (which proves dangerous for our Egypt gang, despite the more trusting times of the 1960s). Young readers today might find it odd that a preschooler was allowed to wander the city with 4th & 6th graders to a location that none of their parents & guardians knew of.

There were moments where language was insensitive, which is not surprising considering it was published in 1967.

This book is nowhere near perfect, but I’ll always love it for its ability to turn me into a young reader who not only enjoyed the book, but was inspired to bring it to life. It taught me that books that speak to us can shape our imaginations, and even our actions.

It’s a problematic favorite that I am glad I revisited, but wouldn’t likely recommend to students today.

It's a little sad, revisiting childhood favorites, and seeing the flaws that only time and perspective could reveal, but it's wonderful to discover that what felt great about the book back then, is even greater to reread as an adult.

Snyder was so important to me, when Egypt Game and Changeling first came out and I was just the age to devour them and relate to them so strongly. They are still wonderful, amazing books, and I would still recommend them to kids, but with maybe the caveat that a few culturally awkward moments might arise. Not so many cringes as in Huckleberry Finn, and not as huge, but a few little cringes are there.

Still, I am sticking with five stars. Snyder wrote of childhoods just a little more complex, more dangerous, and more wondrous, than most writers of her time bothered to grapple with, and did so with respect and understanding. I don't even recall another book at that time about a child of a single mom, living with a grandparent, in a lower-income neighborhood, in a multicultural city, exercising a powerful imagination and creativity.

I loved Tom and Huck, Anne and Diana, and Mary and Colin and especially Dickon--who didn't? But I loved The Egypt Game's April and Melanie, and The Changeling's Ivy and Martha, even better.