Pepi and the Secret Names

by Jill Paton Walsh, Fiona French (Illustrations)

Prince Dhutmose has commanded a splendid tomb to be built for his final journey to the Land of the Dead. Pepi's father is to decorate it, but how can he paint the unimaginable--the terrible gods: Horus the Hawk, Sebek the Crocodile, and Mertseger the Winged Cobra? Pepi decides to help him and, armed with his quick wits and a knowledge of secret names, the boy sets out into the wild to bring back real-life models for his father. In this magically illustrated story, young readers can solve the secret names for themselves, using a simple hieroglyphics key that brings them into the mysterious world of ancient Egypt.

Genres: Picture Books, History, Ancient History, Childrens, Egypt

32 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

Jill Paton Walsh was born Gillian Bliss in London on April 29th, 1937. She was educated at St. Michael's Convent, North Finchley, and at St. Anne's College, Oxford. From 1959 to 1962 she taught English at Enfield Girls' Grammar School.

Jill Paton Walsh has won the Book World Festival Award, 1970, for Fireweed; the Whitbread Prize, 1974 (for a Children's novel) for The Emperor's Winding Sheet; The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award 1976 for Unleaving; The Universe Prize, 1984 for A Parcel of Patterns; and the Smarties Grand Prix, 1984, for Gaffer Samson's Luck.

Series:
* Imogen Quy
* Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane

Reviews

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent original story with excellent artwork. The hieroglyphic "codes" are fun for kids.

Not sure why the title page claims "with six secret names to solve" as there are only five.

[Laurie Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute children's book that teaches about hieroglyphics in context with Ancient Egyptian culture. This was a great springboard into art projects using hieroglyphics in our homeschool.

[Deidra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by Jill Paton Walsh, illustrated by Fiona frenan. Published by Frances Lincoln Children's books, copyright 1994.

Grade level: 2nd or above

In ancient Egypt, pepi is a young boy whose father is painting the tomb for the Prince. In order to help his father paint the gods correctly, Pepi gets the animals to pose for his father by telling the animals if they don't come, he will tell everyone their secret names.

This book was a little different than I expected, but I still liked it. I liked the Egyptian-style art throughout the book, and the story was fun and interesting.

Children will like this book because in order to find out each animal's secret name, they must decode hieroglyphics using a key from the back of the book.

Possible themes or units: history of egypt, egyptian gods and mythology

[Katrina Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some nice illustrations, but the text was a bit hard to follow. It is a very lengthy story and hard to read out loud. There is some use of hieroglyphics throughout the text, but this is also difficult to incorporate when reading out loud. It might be a nice choice to follow up a unit involving hieroglyphics, pyramids, tombs, or mummies. You would definitely want to study the names of the hieroglyphic symbols first though. The best part is that you can decode the hieroglyphic "secret names" at the end of the book by decoding the symbols with the key. I think many students would enjoy that part.

[Chessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a little bit longer than we usually get through in one sitting, and I was a little worried my kids (6.5 and 3) wouldn't make it. But they did! The story was really entertaining - I think the animals being both scary at first then helpful later was fascinating to the kids. The pictures were engaging and sparked more discussion than usual with my guys. We also had a lot of fun writing our names in hieroglyphs at the end of it all. Fun book for young kids interested in Egypt and/or hieroglyphs, codes, translations, etc.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was way too long to read to either of the little ones (1st grade and Kinder). It consists of whole pages filled with text. While an interesting introduction to hieroglyphics, I didn't find the story very engaging. In addition, the inclusion of the hieroglyphics made it impossible to actually read aloud. And the ending was lame. The only thing I really enjoyed was seeing the cat show up in all the pictures. :)

[CanadianReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely looking book that communicates something about the preparation of Egyptian tombs. However, the use of a code, which is supposed to resemble hieroglyphics, makes the book unsuitable for reading aloud and the conclusion is anti-climactic.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 4&8 year olds have been in an Ancient Egypt phase for quite some time. Pepi's story was read aloud to them while they were painting. They enjoyed the story very much, but were inspired to run off and play with their Egyptian dolls, so we will come back to the hieroglyphics portion later.

[Deanna Sutter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book portrays what it might of been like to help built and work on the Pharaoh's tomb. (minus the talking animals) So there is some historical information blended in with fable.

[Jean-Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good historical fiction picture book to complement ancient Egyptian history lessons.