Be a Scribe!

Working for a Better Life in Ancient Egypt

Michael Hoffen, Christian Casey and Jen Thum

While most of us were huddled up at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, and thinking of different ways to keep the kids (and ourselves!) amused, a teenage student in New York spent the time avidly learning all about ancient Egypt and launching his debut writing career.

The result of 16-year-old New York student Michael Hoffen’s labours is Be a Scribe!: Working for a Better Life in Ancient Egypt, a beautifully produced, vibrant, informative and sophisticated non-fiction children’s book – pitched at the eight and over reading age – which provides rich and fascinating detail about life in ancient Egypt.

The book was written with Dr Jen Thum, an Egyptologist and curator at Harvard Art Museums, and teacher and mentor Dr Christian Casey, a postdoc at the Freie Universität Berlin, who met regularly with Hoffen, helping him translate a work of ancient Egyptian literature and learn about hieroglyphs. Under Dr Casey’s guidance, Hoffen (pictured below) meticulously translated and wrote the narrative whilst helping to shape the book’s fascinating graphics, typography and imagery. Their unwavering commitment and weekly meetings over the course of three-and-a-half years breathed life into the remarkable artefacts and stories.

The dazzling joint venture is based on an Egyptian text, known as The Instruction of Khety, which tells the tale of a teenage boy called Pepi who wonders what career path he should choose... an important life matter which is still contemplated by millions of teenagers forty centuries after Pepi. 

The guidance passed from father to son 4,000 years ago is just as relevant today as we follow Pepi and his father on a long journey up the Nile to enrol the boy in a school far away from home where Pepi will learn to read and write.

As well as navigating a world filled with pyramids, hieroglyphs and stunning images, Pepi’s journey explores countless tomb scenes, statues, artefacts and paintings, sheds a light on daily life in ancient Egypt, proving that working for a living has never been easy, and reveals the delightful humour of those 4,000-year-old Egyptians. Children aged eight and over – and their parents – will love learning about the Egyptian people and their unique culture, the work of a scribe and all the benefits that came with it, as well as the many other jobs in ancient Egypt and all the challenges that came with them.

We are also given a compelling glimpse into the geography and rich landscapes of Egypt, and young readers can learn Egyptian words written in hieroglyphs, paired with a guide to help them read aloud. Ideally timed for this year’s opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (Egypt’s billion-dollar museum in Cairo which took 20 years to complete and has been described as the ‘largest museum in the world dedicated to one civilization’), this spectacular book promises to be 2024’s most exciting and revealing reading journey into the ancient past!
(Callaway Arts & Entertainment, hardback, £19.99)