By Eloise Jarvis McGraw
An orphan boy in ancient Egypt uncovers that his cruel older brother is a tomb robber, and a hidden golden goblet is the proof that could get them both killed.
Ranofer is an orphan in ancient Egypt who dreams of being a goldsmith like his dead father, but he lives under the roof of his half-brother Gebu, a stonecutter who beats him, half-starves him, and puts him to hard labor instead. When Ranofer starts noticing gold turning up where it shouldn't, he begins to suspect Gebu of something far worse than cruelty: robbing the tombs of the pharaohs, a crime punishable by death. Then he finds a heavy golden goblet hidden in the house, and he knows. The whole back half of the book is Ranofer trying to gather proof and get it to the authorities without Gebu catching on, a chase that leads him into a sealed tomb in the Valley of the Kings with robbers who would happily leave him there. It's a Newbery Honor book, and it's ancient-Egypt history and mystery braided together.
This is a terrific door into the ancient world because the history is never a lecture, it's the air the story breathes. Your child learns how a goldsmith's shop worked, what the Valley of the Kings meant, and how ordinary people lived along the Nile, all while rooting hard for a bullied boy to outsmart a dangerous man. Ranofer is powerless in every way a child sometimes feels powerless, small, poor, pushed around, and he wins by being observant and brave rather than strong, which is deeply satisfying to read. The mystery tightens steadily and the tomb sequence near the end is tense, so it pulls a reader along even through the slower, scene-setting early chapters.