Hatshepsut: Egypt's First Female Pharaoh (Signature Lives: Ancient World)
Grade 6–8—Though these books are primarily biographies, they also offer details about the history and daily life of Egypt's New Kingdom era.Hatshepsutis more focused on that ruler's life. It also discusses more topics concerning women, such as giving birth and the role of female royalty. The book expects some sophistication from its readers.Ramses, which is geared toward the younger end of the grade level and features simpler sentence structures, provides broad background on the history of the ancient civilization. Both texts are accompanied by high-quality photographs of artifacts, maps, and floor plans. Each book's detailed time line, comparing events in Egypt to those throughout the world, is helpful for placing the lives of the pharaohs in context. For readers with an interest in ancient Egypt or students seeking those hard-to-find 100-plus-page, age-appropriate biographies for assignments, these books are an excellent fit. They incorporate recent archaeological findings and provide excellent, updated supplements to the "Leaders of Ancient Egypt" series (Rosen, 2003).—Alana Abbott, James Blackstone Memorial Library, Branford, CTCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.