The Egypt Game
Zilpha Keatley Snyder
 April Hall is sent to live with her grandmother Caroline in a large university town in California. She was sent there by her mother, Dorothea, a Hollywood actress-singer, because Dorothea was too busy with her career. April makes friends with Melanie, a classmate who shares her fascination with reading and imagination, particularly archaeology. Melanie lives in the Casa de Rosada, a Spanish looking apartment building where April is staying with her grandma Caroline. In August, the girls, along with Melanie's four year old brother, Marshall and his stuffed octopus, Security, begin playing in the storage yard of A-Z Antiques (Curious, Used Merchandise). The children enter through a loose board in the fence. The owner of the store "The Professor", is a mysterious man of whom the neighborhood children are afraid. April has met him once and finds him and his store interesting. April, Melanie, and Marshall research actual Egyptian belief systems and practices, and they create their own rituals intended to reproduce them more or less authentically. They are joined by Elizabeth, a nine year old girl who moves into the Casa de Rosada with her mother and two younger sisters. Sometime in September a child is murdered in the neighborhood, which results in them being restricted from playing outside for a few months. At Halloween they return to Egypt surreptitiously and are discovered by Toby and Ken, two popular boys, who join into the game. Finally allowed to play outdoors again, the "Egyptians" devise an oracle, connected to Thoth, and are unnerved by some of its answers. A series of mysterious things happen, and Melanie wonders if they should stop playing completely. After a horrific incident, the murderer's true identity is revealed. The "Professor" is involved, as he saw what was happening and shouted for help. He now tells the children that he has been watching the game the whole time, intrigued by how they interpreted and re-created Egyptian myths and history. A widower, he became reclusive after his wife's death. As a Christmas gift, he gives a key to each of the six children to access the recently locked storage yard. The children feel that the game cannot continue because its essential of secrecy (or at least of their percep94tion that it is secret) has been destroyed, so they discuss no longer playing. The book ends with one of the children raising the possibility of a new game involving Gypsies. Snyder followed up on this possibility by writing The Gypsy Game in 19