We were browsing through the ancient Egypt books at the library when I pulled out a large red book with an Eye of Horus with a blue plastic jewel for the iris. The title was CLEOPATRA. I added it to our selections and took it home. The book turned out to be one from a series of diary books that are written from the perspective of a tween aged child.
Cleopatra is voiced by a girl who works as her handmaid. The kids loved it. I loved it. On top of that - we all learned lots and lots about Cleopatra and history.
Since then we have read Pirate Diary and Roman Diary - both by Richard Platt. We just started Castle Diary. The books give lots of details about daily life and are only a tiny bit anachronistic (my new favorite word). There is always a bit of a stretch as to how the diary writer became literate and how they procure so much paper! But we will let that stand :) They are fascinating books just the same.
Cleopatra is by
Adèle Geras.
