Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R.L. LaFevers

I am a huge fan of Young Adult literature, and I often browse this section in my local used book store.  When I read the cover of this book, I knew it was something I would enjoy.  Theodosia is a young girl, 11 years old, who lives in the small London museum run by her parents.  Her scholar father spends his days surrounded by his books and relics, and her mother spends her time excavating in Egypt and creating exhibits at the museum for her finds.  Theodosia both loves and hates being at the museum so much.  She loves Egyptian artifacts, and can even read hieroglyphs as easily as she reads English, but there is one thing that makes her stay in the museum very difficult: all the Egyptian curses.  Theodosia can see the ancient curses that cling to artifacts brought back from Egypt and the poor child has to rush about the museum disarming all the magic before someone gets hurt.  

Like Theodosia with her museum, I have a love-hate relationship with this book.  On the one hand, it's a romping good time, with all the elements you could possibly want in a story.  It's set in 1919, and includes ancient curses, British secret societies, German espionage, exotic Egyptian tombs, danger, betrayal and the looming threat of war.  On the other hand, as a trained Egyptologist, I cringe every time the author attempts to explain Egyptian culture.  I wanted to make a list of the mistakes she made: the akhu aren't the 'dangerous dead' at all, they are blessed spirits; heka isn't just 'evil magic' it's all magic; oh come on, Thutmose III was an 18th Dynasty king!  This is a continuing battle within me: to just let it go and enjoy the narrative, sans bibliography vs. the distress at the misinformation of our youth.  

In the grand scheme, it's not that important that 12 year olds fully understand the complexities of Ancient Egyptian religion, and despite the stereotyping of Egypt and Germany (yes, the Germans are all the bad guys, and yes, they are plotting to throw the world into chaos just for the Teutonic glee of it, and yes, the author does attempt to write their lines in German by direct translation) the story itself is interesting, and the voice of Theodosia is convincingly that of a rather bossy, know-it-all 11 year old.  And so, even though I doubt I'll ever be able to read through the book again, for any non-Egyptologist, I'd certainly recommend it.  Who knows, maybe it will inspire some young scholar to pick up the study of Egyptology.

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