Lights on the Nile

Gr 4—8—Kepi is a spirited young ancient Egyptian girl with a powerful connection to animals, from the click beetle she discovers in her family's fields to the baby baboon she finds and raises. When some boys try to steal Babu, Kepi runs far from home in pursuit of her pet and falls prey to Menes, a man whose motives for helping her are unsettlingly ambiguous. Menes drugs her with poppy seedpods and transports her up the Nile to be a baboon trainer in a temple in Ineb Hedj, the capital of Egypt. Kepi's adventures make for fascinating reading, and Napoli smoothly integrates details about the landscape, political structure, religion, and daily life. Readers' hearts will be in their mouths as Kepi survives a sandstorm, reaches the capital, is forced into servitude, and confronts the Pharoah himself. That's where the story begins to feel as if it's barreling toward a too-hasty conclusion. And when Kepi and her new friends are transformed into feri, it seems mostly as if this sketchy explanation of the origin of fairies is Napoli's device to get Kepi back home.—Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY