The best books to read for young Egyptologists
Curator Ben Hinson shares a children’s reading list inspired by the themes in Young V&A’s exhibition ‘Making Egypt’.
A version of this article first appeared in the spring 2025 issue of Art Quarterly, the membership magazine of Art Fund.
Ancient Egypt fascinates us like no other society; it has enticed artists, designers and makers for centuries. Young V&A’s latest exhibition, ‘Making Egypt’, explores how ancient Egypt’s vast creativity – its myths and legends, its art and objects – can likewise inspire creativity in younger audiences today. And before or after making a visit, there are plenty of books aimed broadly at a seven-to-12-plus age range, to engage young appetites further.
Perhaps Egypt’s most dramatic creative expression was its gods. Inspired by the natural world around them, the gods ruled over every aspect of life. Their myths were epic in scale, yet their personalities (and squabbles) familiarly human. It is therefore no surprise that Egypt’s gods are a superb resource for children’s books.
Morgan Moroney’s Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt: Egyptian Mythology for Kids is a wonderful who’s who-style primer to these characters, with stylised full-page illustrations conveying their raw power and bringing them to life on the page. For budding Egyptologists, each god is provided not just with their modern name, but also the original Egyptian hieroglyphs and pronunciation (we say Osiris and Isis; the Egyptians worshipped Usir and Aset).
Jean Menzies’ Egyptian Myths: Meet the Gods, Goddesses, and Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt approaches Egypt’s myths as more of a storybook. Key gods are accompanied by a fact file about their role, associated animals and symbolism.
Alongside ancient Egypt’s myths was a rich tradition of poetry and literature. With magic, talking animals, adventure and peril, these stories are thrilling. Protagonists such as Wenamun and Sinuhe were famous across the ancient world, even inspiring other works still read today – aspects of the Biblical Song of Solomon, for example, seem indebted to the surprisingly risqué love poetry of the Egyptian New Kingdom. In Stories from Ancient Egypt, Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley collates and retells the core body of Egyptian literature, alongside a brief introduction explaining how the Egyptians wrote down their stories (not in hieroglyphs but a related, cursive script called hieratic).
For those who prefer a different format, Stephen Davies and Núria Tamarit’s Myths, Mummies and Magic in Ancient Egypt introduces many of Egypt’s most famous – and some lesser-known – stories in comic-book form, the narrative flowing through the characters’ own words and actions. The synergy of ancient myth and modern comic strip is particularly fitting, since ancient Egyptian gods have inspired many superheroes and villains of contemporary graphic novels, from Marvel’s Moon Knight to DC’s Black Adam.
Egypt’s stories were inspired by its landscape; that same landscape continues to inspire modern stories. Géraldine Elschner’s The Little Hippo (for slightly younger readers) follows a hippo figurine from ancient times through to finding itself excavated in the modern day and reunited with its family in the Louvre museum. The language is probably more suited to parental rather than self-led reading, but this moving story is a love letter to one of ancient Egypt’s most famous animals.
Stephen Davies’ The Ancient Egypt Sleepover, meanwhile, takes Tutankhamun’s treasures as a starting point for a modern-day story following a young British-Egyptian boy. Interweaving a mystery-style adventure set in the British Museum with facts and information about ancient Egypt, the story is designed to accompany Key Stage 2 learning.
Contemporary Egypt offers just as much storytelling inspiration as its ancient past; take Deena Mohamed’s award-winning Young Adult graphic novel Your Wish Is My Command. In this modern-day fairytale set in an alternative-reality Cairo, three individuals each purchase a wish and must grapple with problems both personal and in wider society. The dialogue is peppered with colloquial Egyptian phrases, the illustrations transport readers to Cairo’s busy streets, and the book is read from right to left as in Arabic. However, like all good fairytales, it is also a study of society, using each character’s story to emotionally address issues such as depression, historical colonialism and modern inequality.
There is no shortage of children’s books exploring ancient Egyptian history. Publisher DK has a longstanding reputation for imparting wonder in young audiences, and Ancient Egypt: The Definitive Visual History lives up to that name. At 320 pages, it is as comprehensive a young beginner’s guide to ancient Egypt as it is possible to be, written and edited in consultation with experts. It is not light reading, but, with full-colour illustrations throughout, manages to remain engrossing and interesting.
By complete contrast, for many, Horrible Histories was the catalyst for their love of the past. Totally Chaotic History: Ancient Egypt Gets Unruly!, by Greg Jenner, takes that tongue-in-cheek, anarchic tone and updates it for young audiences today. However, it is co-authored by Egyptologist Campbell Price (who pops up to explain and correct dodgy ‘facts’), lending academic rigour to an otherwise irreverent exploration of Egyptian history.
Similarly Egyptologically penned is Chris Naunton’s book King Tutankhamun Tells All!. King Tut became a celebrity upon his rediscovery in the 1920s and, since then, popular media has often presented him as an innocent ‘Boy King’. Here he is reinvented again as a modern-day, social-media-savvy celeb, bringing his life into modern parlance and even touching on ‘fake news’ around what Egyptologists (think we) know about his life and death.
Pharaonic Egypt might have ended with the conquest of Rome in 30BCE, but, 2,000 years on, it still has the power to entice and inspire new creativity.
Reading list
Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt: Egyptian Mythology for Kids by Morgan Moroney (Callisto Kids, £11.99)
Egyptian Myths: Meet the Gods, Goddesses, and Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by Jean Menzies, illustrated by Katie Ponder (DK Children, £16.99)
Stories from Ancient Egypt by Joyce Tyldesley, illustrated by Julian Heath (Oxbow Books, £9.99)
Myths, Mummies and Magic in Ancient Egypt by Stephen Davies, illustrated by Núria Tamarit (Big Picture Press, £14.99)
The Little Hippo by Géraldine Elschner, illustrated by Anja Klauss (Prestel, £11.99)
The Ancient Egypt Sleepover by Stephen Davies (Caboodle Books, £6)
Your Wish Is My Command by Deena Mohamed (Granta Books, £19.99)
Ancient Egypt: The Definitive Visual History, Preface by Rachel Ng (DK, £30)
Totally Chaotic History: Ancient Egypt Gets Unruly! by Greg Jenner and Campbell Price, illustrated by Rikin Parekh (Walker Books, £7.99)
King Tutankhamun Tells All! by Chris Naunton, illustrated by Guilherme Karsten (Thames & Hudson, £11.99)
‘Making Egypt’, Young V&A, London, to 2 November. Free to all, 50% off paid exhibitions with National Art Pass.
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