| I always loved to supplement history studies with | | | | gleaming ziggurat and the stench of narrow back |
| historical fiction. I found picture books and novels | | | | alleys. |
| aplenty while studying Greece and Rome, the | | | | Tabni's tale draws us in. We feel her grief and hunger |
| Renaissance and Reformation, or the Revolutionary | | | | as she finds herself homeless in a new world. We |
| and Civil Wars. But ancient Sumer? The closest I could | | | | discover her pluck and courage as she forms a daring |
| get was the story of Gilgamesh, but it is an epic, not a | | | | plan while living alone in secret. And we taste Tabni's |
| novel, and not nearly so appealing to eight- to | | | | fear of vengeance from the many gods she tries |
| twelve-year-old girls! | | | | desperately to appease. |
| Actually, both girls and boys alike will delight in Secret | | | | In true "historical novel" fashion, Secret of the Scribe |
| of the Scribe, the first historical novel about ancient | | | | teaches the reader about life and customs in Ur-how |
| Sumer I've seen. Author Jennifer Johnson Garrity | | | | people in this ancient civilization lived, ate, dressed, |
| transports the reader back 5000 years to the time of | | | | worked, and worshipped. Italicized words sprinkled |
| Abraham and the bustling city of Ur. Told in first | | | | throughout the book point to a glossary of unfamiliar |
| person, it's the story of a young girl, Tabni, who grows | | | | terms, making it easy for the teacher or |
| up in comfort as a slave to a Sumerian queen-until a | | | | homeschooling parent to incorporate vocabulary into |
| great calamity forces her to flee the palace by night | | | | their Sumerian studies. |
| and make her way into the world alone. | | | | Secret of the Scribe would also make a great |
| Don't we love The Boxcar Children and My Side of | | | | springboard into arts and crafts. The book introduces |
| the Mountain, where the courageous protagonists must | | | | students to Sumerian trades such as weaving, |
| live resourcefully on their own? This universally | | | | metalwork, jewelry-making, and pottery, opening up all |
| appealing theme appears in Secret of the Scribe as | | | | sorts of possibilities for accompanying projects. |
| well. As the young scribe Tabni weaves her narrative, | | | | Trained as a scribe, Tabni writes on clay tablets, |
| the reader journeys with her by boat down the broad | | | | suggesting a project that dovetails art with learning |
| Euphrates River to the Sumerian trade center of Ur, | | | | about Sumerian cuneiform. |
| where we experience both the grandeur of the | | | | |