Chloe's Thoughts on Casting the Gods Adrift

Welcome to Chloe's (3rd grade) first book review!

My first impression of this book was that it was going to have a lot of monkeys! Look at the first page. A boat full of monkeys!

The main character was not a monkey, thank goodness. His name was Tutmose and the story tells us that if your dad is really upset, don't try to do anything naughty; make him a peace offering. The reason why he is really upset is that the boys' mom got a disease when they were moving to a different area of the country and she died.

Tutmose, his brother, and his father had a hard time because his father was really worried that he wouldn't be able to watch after his kids and make sure that they were okay and that they had enough money to buy dinner and all that.

A half-woman, half-man, half-god (yeah, that's a weird character!) helps them. Because he helped them, I liked him (her? it?) a little more, but I still thought it (he? she?) was kinda kooky. Everything turns out okay after all.

If you compared this plot to a roller-coaster, it started out going straight (kinda boring), then it went  up (really, really boring), but then it went down really, really fast--which was very exciting. Three quarters of the book was humdrum, but the ending was flashy enough to make the book worth reading.

There were some interesting details about ancient Egypt in the book. As a girl, I liked learning about the different ways they did their hair. The more important people had their hair done in fancier styles. I learned a lot about ancient Egypt from the illustrations--more than I learned from the text. The sketches were very detailed and are the biggest reason I enjoyed the book.

Cats played a big part in the story, so if you like cats, read the book!

I am eight year old girl and in the third grade. I might recommend this book to other kids my age who are studying ancient Egypt. I am not really crazy about ancient Egypt, but I think you might like this book if you are fascinated by this time and place. There were also not that many girls in the book, so I think boys might enjoy it more.