220. Ancient Egypt: Tales of Gods and Pharaohs by Marcia Williams

Ancient Egypt: Tales of Gods and Pharaohs by Marcia Williams (Canada) - (US)

Pages: 48
Ages: 8+
Finished: Sept. 26, 2011
First Published: Sept. 13, 2011
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Genre: children, graphic novel, mythology, Ancient Egypt
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

In the beginning, there was only the deep, dark water of Nun.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Candlewick Press.

Reason for Reading: I love mythology, Egyptian Mythology, and this series of books by Marcia Williams.

Typical of Marcia Williams' books this is set up in a comic strip format with the narrative told underneath the strips and funny, comical asides coming from the characters depicted in the cartoons.  The most popular tales are told here in a fairly linear order so that one story leads onto the next with the exception of jumping many years to Cleopatra at the end.  The book begins with the mythology of Ra, Isis, Thoth, etc and goes on to tell the tales of famous pharaohs Hatsheput, Thutmose, Tut, Cleopatra, etc.  So the book isn't entirely mythology, though myths do surround some of the Pharaohs.  Williams' artwork is beautiful as usual and the book includes two spreads where the pages unfold outwards to create large panoramic scenes.  One thing that is missing, from her other books, is the usual detailed framed artwork around each page; here she has simply framed each piece with what look like papyrus plants.  An added plus though, is along the bottom of each page is a continuous ticker where a cat tells a running commentary on interesting facts about Egyptian life: the role of cats (of course), agriculture, mummies, inventions, etc.  A gorgeous book when all said and done; the tales are a good selection for an introduction to Egyptian mythology and pharaohs.