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The Hieroglyphs Handbook
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Plot Summary of The Hieroglyphs Handbook
"How much history of an ancient language and its writing can you get into a book, under a hundred pages, aimed at teens reading level, and leavened with cartoons? A good deal, as it turns out. This is without doubt a book to spark interest in real history in the young, and would probably make a good school text. History with humour is now something of an industry, and as Egyptian glyphs and art in general are close to cartoons already this book combines them quite appropriately.

We are pratically danced through the development of writing and the history of the Egyptian language in general, via ideograms, phonograms, and the rebus principle, the Egyptian alphabet and determinatives, and a very little grammar. (And, although he does not go into it, I finally figured out why many languages like French and Greek have gender - the earliest written languages, like Egyptian had nouns and proper nouns, but then qualified whether they referred to male or female by adding a man or woman 'determinative'.) We glance through archaic, Old, Classical/Middle, Late, demotic, and finally Coptic Egyptian. The Rosetta Stone decipherment of Egyptian is recounted. With this book and some effort you can decipher a pharaoh's name-cartouche, count in glyphs, and if stuck in the British Museum on a rainy day, read a sentence of the complexity of 'Have a nice day' (only eight glyphs!). Concise, informative, and enjoyable."
Michael JR Jose, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of The Hieroglyphs Handbook
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Kind Of History
Time of history: - History of mankind - Ancient Egyptian Era
History of a people? Yes
Nationality? - Egyptian
History of words/phrases? Yes

Subjects of this Historical Account
Is the portrayal sympathetic? - Sympathetic
From a certain profession/group? - Nobility/Royalty
Intelligence of subject of history: - Smart

Setting
Middle East? Yes
If applicable, liberal/conservative? - Historian is very moderate

Style
How much gore? - 1 ()
How fast-paced is the book? - 9 ()
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
Book makes you feel... - encouraged
How much focus on stories of individuals? - Focuses mostly on the people/nation level
How much romance? - 1 ()
Is book humorous? Yes
If humorous, kind of humor - puns - parody
Minor characters feature lots of: - politicians - blue collar types
Is this a kid's book? - Ages 14-16
Pictures/Illustrations? - A lot
Length of book - Less than 150 pages
How much emphasis on small details? - 5 ()
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