Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile, Egypt, 57 B.C. (The Royal Diaries) - Hardcover

Gregory, Kristiana

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590819755 ISBN 13: 9780590819756

Publisher: Scholastic Inc., 1999

Synopsis

While her father is in hiding after attempts on his life, twelve-year-old Cleopatra records in her diary how she fears for her own safety and hopes to survive to become Queen of Egypt some day

About this title

About the Author

Kristiana Gregory is the bestselling author of many Dear America titles, including THE WINTER OF RED SNOW and its follow-up, CANNONS AT DAWN; ACROSS THE WIDE AND LONESOME PRAIRIE; and SEEDS OF HOPE. She has also written the Cabin Creek Mysteries, which are based on bedtime stories she told her sons when they were young and restless. Kristiana lives in Boise, Idaho. Visit her online at www.kgregorybooks.com.

Reviews

Grade 4-8-Princess Cleopatra narrates major episodes from her life in a diary she keeps from age 12 to 14. She is sympathetically depicted as a delightful mixture of adolescent uncertainty and as a young woman with great maturity and insight. Born into a royal household full of intrigue and fears of assassination, she desperately wants to survive to become a responsible and just queen. She describes everyday life in the Egyptian court and her frantic flight to Rome with her father, Ptolemy XII, to seek refuge and alliance with the Romans against their enemies and her sisters, who both seek the throne. Characters are well drawn, Cleopatra's relationships with others are realistically portrayed, and historical background is well integrated into the text. This is an enjoyable story, followed by a synopsis of the queen's later years, a time line, family tree, and black-and-white reproductions of old engravings and paintings.
Cynthia M. Sturgis, Ledding Library, Milwaukee, OR
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Through compelling journal entries, this entry in The Royal Diaries series takes readers back to a time in ancient Egypt when Cleopatra was a 12-year-old princess, traveling to Rome to meet the likes of Caesar, Cicero, and Marc Antony for the first time. Gregory imagines how the intelligent, literate princess might record events both large and small, proposing that even at such a young age, Cleopatra struggled to learn diplomacy. The attention to detail draws readers headlong into ancient Egypt, describing with immediacy and vigor the spices, views, tastes, and smells that a young Cleopatra may have encountered. An epilogue, family tree, historical notes, and numerous black-and-white illustrations fill in the rest of her story. (Fiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In a new entry in the Royal Diaries series, Cleopatra, age 12, writes in her diary about the events of her daily life, which are far from mundane. She discusses the attempts on her father's life, her pet leopard, her trip to see the lighthouse at Pharos (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), and her exile when her elder sister usurps the throne. Her exotic life also includes some horrifying events (her sister's head is brought in on a platter), and Gregory has clearly done her research, inserting many interesting bits of historical lore. Of course, the story is never truly believable--unless you can imagine young Cleopatra writing such lines on her papyrus as "I, Cleopatra, Princess of the Nile." But Gregory writes evocatively, and she provides a good deal of helpful background information at the end of the book. Susan Dove Lempke

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590819755
• ISBN 13: 9780590819756
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 230