In ancient Egypt, Mutemwia the slave girl befriends Pharaoh and becomes his trusted counsel, but she is not free. Will Pharaoh grant this greatest gift to his dearest friend?

During a boat ride on the Nile, Mutemwia proves that her love for the Pharaoh is a gift of the heart and needs no cage to hold it.

Enjoyable as Always! , January 30, 2007


At this point, the Legends of the World Series is rather like an old friend...we can almost always count on our experience being pleasant, informative and fun...and that is the case with The Gift of the Nile: An Ancient Egyptian Legend. This time out we are introduced to Mutenwia a girl given to the Pharaoh by her father, as a gift. Though she is plain, she is honest and kind and soon becomes the Pharaoh's closest friend and advisor. Over time, she becomes terribly homesick and tells the Pharaoh of this. He is deeply hurt that he misses her old life more than she has missed him while he is away...he also begins to find it hard to be happy and enjoy life without Mutenwia as part of it and asks his Magician for counsel. The legend goes on and ultimately Pharaoh confesses to her that she is his truest friend and confidant and he cannot bear for her to leave, as a compromise, he gives her the freedom wants and grants her a home near the palace so that they might forever be close to one another.

Overall, the Gift of the Nile: An Ancient Egyptian Legend reminds me very much of Muti's Necklace (with minor variations). While I enjoyed Muti's strong character, this version is, I think closer to the traditional version. The illustrations are about par for the course for this series and far less lush and vivid than in Muti's Necklace, but still quite nice, though the lack of mouths throughout was somewhat distressing and eyes were either depicted as slits or fish (a little strange)...I'm not sure what the author/illustrator hoped to convey with these visuals. I give it four stars, it's a lovely story and the illustrations match the text quite well, but it's not as engaging as some of the others in this series have been. One final note, each book in this series comes with a one page summary of the legend, including other names it's been called and a bit about the history how the story developed and what its significance is, so you don't just get the story...you get the context as well! This is something that I really enjoy in this series and it's one of the reasons that I recommend it. ( )

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