I often beloved to complement historical past research with historic fiction. I uncovered photo textbooks and novels aplenty even though finding out Greece and Rome, the Renaissance and Reformation, or the Groundbreaking and Civil Wars. But ancient Sumer? The closest I could get was the tale of Gilgamesh, but it is an epic, not a novel, and not practically so desirable to 8- to twelve-yr-aged women!
Essentially, each women and boys alike will delight in Top secret of the Scribe, the first historical novel about ancient Sumer I have seen. Author Jennifer Johnson Garrity transports the reader again 5000 years to the time of Abraham and the bustling city of Ur. Instructed in initial person, it really is the tale of a young female, Tabni, who grows up in consolation as a slave to a Sumerian queen-until a great calamity forces her to flee the palace by evening and make her way into the environment on your own.
Do not we appreciate The Boxcar Kids and My Side of the Mountain, where by the courageous protagonists ought to are living resourcefully on their individual? This universally pleasing concept appears in Mystery of the Scribe as nicely. As the younger scribe Tabni weaves her narrative, the reader journeys with her by boat down the wide Euphrates River to the Sumerian trade centre of Ur, in which we encounter both the grandeur of the gleaming ziggurat and the stench of slender back again alleys.
Tabni’s tale attracts us in. We really feel her grief and hunger as she finds herself homeless in a new entire world. We find out her pluck and braveness as she forms a daring approach whilst residing by yourself in solution. And we flavor Tabni’s concern of vengeance from the numerous gods she tries desperately to appease.
In real “historic novel” manner, Top secret of the Scribe teaches the reader about lifestyle and customs in Ur-how individuals in this historic civilization lived, ate, dressed, labored, and worshipped. Italicized text sprinkled through the guide point to a glossary of unfamiliar terms, generating it quick for the teacher or homeschooling parent to incorporate vocabulary into their Sumerian studies.
Key of the Scribe would also make a wonderful springboard into arts and crafts. The guide introduces college students to Sumerian trades these as weaving, metalwork, jewellery-making, and pottery, opening up all types of prospects for accompanying projects. Educated as a scribe, Tabni writes on clay tablets, suggesting a venture that dovetails artwork with studying about Sumerian cuneiform.
