The Eye of The Pharaoh

The Eye of The Pharaoh

Written and Illustrated by: Iain Smyth
Genre: Pop-Up
Grades: 2-5
Awards: None

This book gives the reader hints and clues to figure out who stole the rare Egyptian relic, the Eye of the Pharaoh. This relic supposedly has magical healing power from the Egyptian gods. The characters involved in this mystery is Anne Hackette, Harry Ford, Ali-Bi, Marilyn Street, Cholë Petra, Bill Folds, and Dr. Doug Sands. These character arrive at the pyramid of Kha-Putt, and go in to explore. Some of the pop-up parts include Anne Hackette passport, Henry Ford's suitcase, and other pharaohs caskets. All of the characters arrive to a tomb and break the seal on the doors. What they don't know is that there is a terrible curse on that tomb once it is open. These curses include being chased by a mummy, scared by snakes, and plagued by a sleeping sickness. They enter the tomb (where a large pop-up of the tomb is shown) that has been sealed for 4,000 years and the party splits up with each other to explore the tomb. Right before the party leaves, Anne Hackette takes a picture of the tomb, and Ali-Bi is left to guard the tomb while everyone sleeps outside in their tents. During the night, the Eye of the Pharaoh is stolen while Ali-Bi was guarding it

The book gives the reader the decision to pick one of the three different endings of who stole the relic. One ending is that Anne Hackette did it because she wanted to keep her job as a journalist. The second ending is that Harry Ford and Marilyn Street stole the relic together, because their acting career was failing. The third ending is that Cholë Petra did it to cure her sick aunt.

I enjoyed this very much as it is very interactive for the students to read. It is neat that the students get to decide who stole the Eye of the Pharaoh based on the clues the book gives. This would be great for second to fifth graders to read. I would have my students decide one suspect and write about why they picked that person based on the clues.