The Egypt Game Paperback - 1985

First line

NOT LONG AGO IN A LARGE UNIVERSITY TOWN IN California, on a street called Orchard Avenue, a strange old man ran a dusty shabby store.

Excerpt

An Excerpt from The Egypt Game

            All through the month of August, Melanie and April were together almost
            every day. They played the paper-families game and other games, both
            in the Rosses' apartment and in Caroline's. They took Marshall for
            walks and to the park while Mrs. Ross was gone to her class, and almost
            every day they went to the library. It was in the library in August
            that the seeds were planted that grew into the Egypt Game in September
            in the Professor's deserted yard.

            It all started when April found a new book about Egypt, an especially
            interesting one about the life of a young pharaoh. She passed it on
            to Melanie, and with it a lot of interest in all sorts of ancient
            stuff. Melanie was soon as fascinated by the valley of the Nile as
            April had been. Before long, with the help of a sympathetic librarian,
            they had found and read just about everything the library had to offer
            on Egypt--both fact and fiction.

            They read about Egypt in the library during the day, and at home in
            the evening, and in bed late at night when they were supposed to be
            asleep. Then in the mornings while they helped each other with their
            chores they discussed the things they had found out. In a very short
            time they had accumulated all sorts of fascinating facts about tombs
            and temples, pharaohs and pyramids, mummies and monoliths, and dozens
            of other exotic topics. They decided that the Egyptians couldn't have
            been more interesting if they had done it on purpose. Everything,
            from their love of beauty and mystery, to their fascinating habit
            of getting married when they were only eleven years old, made good
            stuff to talk about. By the end of the month, April and Melanie were
            beginning work on their own alphabet of hieroglyphics for writing
            secret messages, and at the library they were beginning to be called
            the Egypt Girls.