From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4–Adapting and expanding an ancient Egyptian story, Hawes has created an original fairy tale about familial love and its power to thwart even the majesty of Pharaoh. Muti cherishes the necklace her father made for her when she was born, associating it with many happy memories. After turning 13, she leaves her beloved family to work as a servant in King Snefru's palace. Pharaoh, impressed by her beauty and grace, makes her the leader of a cohort of female rowers for his pleasure boat. When her necklace breaks and falls into the lake, she refuses to row or to accept a replacement. It is so important to her that she stands up to Pharaoh, who is now even more impressed by her determination. Where the story contrasts sharply with traditional fairy tales is in the climax: when Snefru asks Muti to become his queen, she declines, preferring to be reunited with her family. The writing style favors the more fleshed-out manner of a short story than the leanness of a folktale. Guay's lush watercolor-and-gouache paintings incorporate elements of Egyptian art and culture, including jewelry motifs, decorative geometric patterns in the scenery, and headdresses and hairstyles. The characters' faces and gestures are expressive and dramatic, and the surrounding landscape teems with life.
–Coop Renner, Hillside Elementary, El Paso, TX Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Gr. 2-4. In this folktale categorized as fiction, the author of the YA historical novel
The Vanishing Point (2004) tells a story culled from ancient Egyptian papyrus manuscripts. Carved of "turquoise, blue as a dragonfly's wing, and carnelian, red as the inside of a pomegranate," the necklace given to palace servant Muti by her father is a sentimental talisman. When she loses the necklace while rowing the royal barge, Muti risks mortal punishment by pausing to retrieve it. Far from enraging the pharaoh, her courage wins her an offer of marriage that she declines in order to reunite with her family: "I prefer my own life to any other, no matter how fine." Although Guay's figures (especially wild-haired, limpid-eyed Muti) often seem like posed portraits, her lavish paintings will satisfy demand for picture books featuring lovely young women in lush, romantic settings. At the same time, the retelling's feminist angle (which an endnote acknowledges was far less prominent in the original) offers a refreshing change from the typical equation between plucky heroines and lucrative betrothals.
Jennifer MattsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
