The Ancient Egypt Sleepover is a fast-paced, easy read adventure story that is bound to engage any reader interested in history and museums, especially those who would love the opportunity to sleep in a museum overnight!

Told from the viewpoint of the main character Mo, who won a writing competition prize of a sleepover in a museum, this story makes many references to Ancient Egypt throughout its plot, in particular the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and the importance of Hieroglyphics. The use of hieroglyphics in the story was a nice addition and readers will certainly want to follow in Mo’s footsteps and have a go a creating their own coded hieroglyphic messages (there is further reference to hieroglyphs made by the author as part of his author’s notes which made for further interesting reading).

Stephen Davies’ choice of language used throughout the story make it accessible and understandable to all. Longer Egyptian words are broken down easily, making them easier to decode. The language also helps to bring the story to life: readers could really imagine themselves, just like Mo, getting up to all sorts of adventures in a museum like this. The author also weaves ancient historical discoveries with the modern-day wonder and awe of the children finding out about the past.  There is description in the book that could be used to inspire writing about the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

This would be a great additional classroom read for lower KS2 that could support or further learning about Ancient Egypt.