ALA Booklist

for reading to interested listeners. Rumford recounts the story of Jean-Francois Champollion, who was only 11 when he vowed to be the first person to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. As he grew older, Champollion became an expert in languages and Egyptology and studied the Rosetta Stone but could not unlock the secret of heiroglyphs. Finally, he had an epiphany: Each name was a jigsaw puzzle of letters and pictures. Although Champollion died young, he became the first to open the door to Egyptian writing. Despite the book's traditional picture-book appearance, with a short text and nicely rendered watercolor art, the topic requires and gets sturdy treatment. Sometimes Rumford's sentences are a bit convoluted, and the addition of hieroglyphs in the body of the text may stop some kids. Those intrigued by hieroglyphs, however, will find this a useful introduction. Pictures and translations of certain hieroglyphs dot the margins, and the back matter offers a glossary to hieroglyphs in the book as well as some factual information. Fresh and appealing. (Reviewed April 15, 2000)

Horn Book

Jean-François Champollion's lifelong fascination with Egyptian hieroglyphs--and eventual deciphering of their meaning--is simplified for young children. Dark watercolor illustrations convey Champollion's determination to crack the hieroglyph code. Though including hieroglyphs within the body of the text may have seemed clever, it undermines the mystery and nearly always breaks the narrative flow.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

"A tale of heroic perseverance and discovery, this picture book biography of Jean-Francois Champollion, the early-19th-century amateur scholar who first deciphered hieroglyphs, will fire the imagination," said <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW. Ages 5-8. (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">June)

School Library Journal

Gr 2-5-This picture-book biography tells the intriguing story of the man who deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs. As a child, Jean-Fran ois Champollion learned that no one could read Egyptian writing and determined that he would be the one to do so. By age 16, he had learned all the known ancient languages and was eager to work with scholars who were attempting to translate the hieroglyphs with the help of the Rosetta Stone. Though they turned him down, he doggedly pursued his passion on his own and at age 30, had a sudden breakthrough. While studying the name of a Pharaoh copied from a temple wall, he discovered that the characters were not just related to meaning, but also to sounds. Though the key to unlocking the secret may not be completely clear to children, Champollion's fascination with hieroglyphs and the realization of his dream will capture their interest and perhaps whet their curiosity for further study. Framed watercolor paintings done in soft blues, purples, and sunlit pinks evoke a sense of mystery compatible with the suspense of the scholar's discovery process. Small hieroglyphs are embedded in the text. Those with less-obvious meanings seem distracting at first reading. More effective are the larger, captioned ones in the margins that make the picture-meaning connection clear ("There is a long-necked, far-seeing giraffe in `predict'"). Overall, an engaging introduction to a timeless topic.-Adele Greenlee, Bethel College, St. Paul, MN Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.