Tutankhamen Speaks by Carpinello Review and Free Student PDF

Tutankhamen Speaks was written by Cheryl Carpinello. This is a prequel to her Quest Books Companion to Sons of the Sphinx novel. Previously, I made freebies for other books by Cheryl Carpinello such as Guinevere, On the Eve of Legend at this blog post, and Young Knights of the Round Table: The King’s Ransom at this blog post. For Tutankhamen Speaks there are free Google Slides for students. There is a free teacher guide PDF, as well, with answer keys for the work slides. There is also a free student save-my-ink PDF version of the Google Slides for a printing option.

The genre for this book is historical fiction ancient civilizations. It was published in 2014 and has 80 pages. The Publisher is Beyond Today Educator, and the cover artist is Rita Toews from Your eBook Cover. This book can be read as a standalone. It has earned a 2014 EVVY Merit Award for Historical Fiction from CIPA (Colorado Independent Publishers Association). *Note: I purchased my own copy.

Tutankhamen Speaks

The official synopsis is as follows. “Long ago the old texts of ancient Egypt alluded to scrolls in which King Tut spoke to the people from beyond the tomb. Many archaeologists put this down to an incorrect translation of the ancient Egyptian texts. Others swore to the accuracy of the translation. None of that mattered because the scrolls in question could not be found. Scholars labeled it a hoax, something that never existed. It was ludicrous to imagine someone speaking from the grave. They were wrong on both accounts.”

Meaning, Carpinello goes back in time and sees the story from the point of view of King Tutankhamen from ages 6 up to and including his death at 18. It is a very thoughtful approach to the story with many literary ploys that make it completely convincing. I was wondering if indeed Tutankhamen had spoken to her from the grave! Students could identify the writing techniques that make it seem so realistic. Of course, being based on facts and information it does read like nonfiction. Students might need to remember the genre when reading to return to reality. This book is great for discussion! My family all talked about what they knew in this area, as the topic is so famous.

I liked this book immediately as when I was in 5th grade our teacher taught us about this subject and also allowed us to redecorate our classroom in to a tomb complete with a mummy. We were so excited to fill the tomb with artifacts we made to enhance the learning. It was such a great idea I remember this years later. It is a possible idea for further studies about Egypt.

AUTHOR BIO, by the author herself

“I am a retired high school English teacher. A devourer of books growing up, my profession introduced me to writings and authors from times long past. Through my studies and teaching, I fell in love with the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Now, I hope to inspire young readers and those young-at-heart to read more through my Quest Books set in these worlds.”

Also please visit my other sites: Carpinello’s Writing Pages where I interview Childrens/Tween/MG/YA authors; and The Quest Books where I’ve teamed up with Fiona Ingram from South Africa and Wendy Leighton-Porter of Abu Dhabi to enable readers to find our Ancient and Medieval quest books in one place.