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Product Description
The best mystery of Ancient Egypt for younger children!
At any time and in any place, when there is a mystery to be solved, a ten-year-old boy will want to have a hand in it. So it was with Kaffe, an Egyptian boy of long ago. With his friend Sari, a slave-girl, Kaffe had many adventures—the harvest feast, the fight of the bulls, the flood. Then came the mystery of the pyramid’s missing jewels and a dark night when Kaffe, his father, and Sari set out to catch the thief.
This wonderful book had been out of print for years. We’re thrilled to bring it back and make it available for a new generation of students to enjoy!
- Gentle, Yet Exciting, Mystery—No murders or grizzly mummy stories here. Readers are eased into the mystery of the missing jewels with some clues and characters among the first chapters, then the excitement builds as they set out to catch the thief.
- Appropriate—Deals with some of the potentially sordid details of this ancient culture in a manner totally appropriate for young children. It mentions some of the Egyptian gods and beliefs about death as part of the story, but does not dwell on them or sensationalize them.
- Comprehensive—Masterfully weaves many aspects of Ancient Egypt into the story line: homes, meals, feasts, slaves, architecture, Nile River, transportation, trades, geography, climate, clothing, social classes, temple, palace, pharaoh, entertainment, annual flood, agriculture, shadufs, currency, pyramids, tomb robbers, neighboring cultures, farming, and more!
- Illustrated—The beautiful pen and ink drawings do as much to help children learn about Ancient Egypt as the story does. Wonderfully illustrated by Dorothy Bayley Morse.
- Award-Winning—Written by Ruth Fosdick Jones and originally published in 1950, this book won the Jack and Jill Prize Contest.
- Recommended—Listed as a suggested resource in the SCM Curriculum Guide. Used as the main living book for younger children (grades 1–3) in the Ancient Egypt study of History/Geography/Bible Module 1. Daily lesson plans are available in Genesis through Deuteronomy & Ancient Egypt: A Family Study Handbook.
Book or Audiobook
Boy of the Pyramids is also available as an audiobook. Now you can enjoy listening to a chapter or two while running errands or enjoy the whole book on a long car trip. It’s also great to keep younger children busy and learning while you teach your older students.
Additional Information
| Weight | .4 lbs |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 8.5 × 5.5 × 0.325 in |
| Author | |
| Binding | Audio Download, CD, E-book, Trade Paper |
| Pages | 122 |
| Running Time | 124 minutes |
| Read By | Jordan Smith |
| Grade | Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3 |
| Lesson Plan | Genesis through Deuteronomy & Ancient Egypt |
| Charter-Friendly |
18 reviews for Boy of the Pyramids
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Krista –
My girls (6 & 9)loved this book, and could hardly wait to finish the book. It really made this part of history come alive for them. Thank you for making it available.
Rossi –
Our family read this book out loud together during our study of Ancient Egypt. We looked forward to starting a new chapter each day. As the plot thickens my girls (4,8 & 11) would cheer for more so I would have to read another chapter during our lunchtime. We got a nice idea of the how things worked and the life style during those times. Thank you for the recommendation… we had fun going on the adventure!
Carey –
My daughter loved this book and wants to read it again! It was a wonderful way to learn about the culture. Wish I had a whole library full of books this good.
Robin –
Wow…we just started reading this book today….my boys, 7 and 10, are enthralled by it!
Lynda –
Goodness gracious!!! My sixth grade teacher read this aloud to my class 43 years ago!! I STILL remember it…and thought it was out of print. THANK you!
HomeschoolScrapbook –
What a treasure! My son 10 and daughter 8 LOVED this as much as I did! They BEGGED for me to read more chapters, but I wanted it to last and last. What fun we had together trying to guess what would happen next! This made our “favorites” list. Thank you so much for offering it here at SCM! 🙂
James –
As a child I read this in a serialized version in “Jack and Jill” magazine. I was mesmerized and couldn’t wait for each part. Not sure what year it was, must have been around 1952-3 – wow! almost 60 years ago!
Sonya Shafer –
That sounds about right, James. Ruth Fosdick Jones received the Jack and Jill Magazine award for the best manuscript submitted in 1951. It’s a wonderful story!
Lydia –
Great story! my children 5 through 13 enjoyed it very much. What an inspiring book! Thank you!!
KCMommy –
I just pre-read this book before reading it to my children. I LOVED it! Based on the reviews, I thought it would be good but I was blown away. I’m very glad I purchased it and look forward to reading it to my kids. Excellent book!
Monica –
My 6 year old son thought this was fantastic. While he struggles to narrate orally, he and his younger sister built pyramids and played “Kaffe and Sari” for hours, with all of the elements of the plot included!
It is a clear, straightforward story, perfect for elementary level!
FivePoppets –
Our girls really enjoyed this book – so did I actually. We bought a hard copy of the book and also the audio version and the girls followed along (ages 9 and 7). Great story!!! Our girls also played ancient egypt after hearing/reading the story.
albanyaloe –
Our family, with children aged 6 through 11 have really enjoyed using this book. We used it alongside a study on ancient Egypt, and it complimented it beautifully. A lot of what we had learned about Egypt in ancient times, was brought to life in the story and my children were thrilled to see history come alive. As other reviewers have said, there was a bit of a problem in putting the book down 😉
Interestingly, my one very sensitive child told me after the first chapter that she did not want to listen to the story as she did not like the way the slaves were treated. We discussed it at length, and gave her an option, but she continued to listen anyway. I did however leave out a few words occasionally, like how the backs of the slaves looked when they returned from the pyramids, and there was something about the injury in the bull fight. She was a bit horrified that people would even do that. Leaving out an occasional word did not detract from the story, the older two children knew from the words that I did read that the slaves were treated badly bt the younger one was not traumatised. This led to greater family enjoyment.
Kiri –
I honestly almost didn’t get this book. I had already gathered a rather large pile of books for our study of Ancient Egypt, that initially did not include this book. As we progressed in our study I found we really needed a great historical fiction book to round things off. I balked at purchasing still more, especially as I had already purchased from SCM and didn’t want to add just one book with shipping to boot. Well, boy am I glad I did! Not only did my kids love it, but I really enjoyed reading it, too. It had great descriptions of Ancient Egypt, and just enough excitement to keep things going without being too scary or graphic for the younger crowd. It was well-written, interesting, and just what we were looking for. Thanks to SCM for bringing back such a great title!
Michelle Stokes –
Amazing. My boys (6 and 8) loved this book. They are begging for more history. Thank you for making books like this available!
Christie –
We are only two chapters in and I already love this book. I have little ones, 3 and 5, who have asked a ton of questions about the slavery aspect so far so we’ve talked a lot about that to help them process what slavery is, etc. What I love is Kaffe’s heart in Chapter Two and the elements of history that the book explains so well. You really get a feel for the cultural aspects of Ancient Egypt. DEFINITELY will recommend to others!
Chris H. –
I read this book as a typical 6th grade English student… ahem… sometime in the school year 1982-1983 in Richardson Texas. Yes, the book left quite an impression on this 11-12 year old boy. The story is one any boy would love, and perhaps that’s why it stuck with me all these years. I hated reading back then, and I loved this book. I read slow back then, and I loved this book. I look forward to reading this book to my grand kids.
Jennifer –
This book far surpassed my expectations. We read it aloud as a family for our Egypt study. I was reading to my 5 year old twins and my 7 year old. They LOVED it. They begged for me to read more each day. The best part was when we finished the book they all clapped. Seriously! Clapped! They have never once done that for a book. They adored it. One of my 5 year olds said “oh no now we have to return it to the library!” And when I told him that it was ours he exclaimed “I am going to read it to my children!” I wish I could find a living book just like this for every unit we study. What a gem this is!
alphabetika –
I just finished reading this to my 9yo daughter as part of our ancient Egypt study. When we were done, she yelled, “I LOVED IT!” and asked if we could start reading it again right away. So much rich detail and such an engaging story. I didn’t plan it this way, but this is actually the first thing we read in our study, and it was the perfect introduction.