Product Description

Notable Children's Books of 1991 (ALA)
Notable 1990 Children's Trade Books in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC)
Children's Books of 1990 (Library of Congress)
100 Books for Reading and Sharing (NY Public Library)
Parenting Honorable Mention, Reading Magic Award

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #212267 in Books
• Published on: 1993-01-01
• Released on: 1993-02-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Copiously illustrated with drawings and historical prints and photographs, this accessible account explicates one of history's greatest discoveries. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Giblin chronicles the lives of several scholars, namely Thomas Young and Jean-Francois Champollion, who struggled to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs and break the code of the Rosetta Stone. Most children's books on Egyptian history make mention of the Rosetta Stone, but few (if any) give it the detailed attention of Giblin's book. This isn't a biography of Champollion, nor is it a dictionary of how to read hieroglyphs (as is Katan's Hieroglyphs: The Writing of Ancient Egypt McElderry, 1981). It's actually more of a "biography" of the stone itself. The writing style is a little dry, and somber photos and black-and-white illustrations lack the vivacity to catch a young reader's eye. But both adults and children will find this a solid reference source for reports or for more detailed information than general books on Egyptology provide. --Cathryn A. Camper, Minneapolis Public Library
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
James Cross Giblin is the author of eighteen books for young readers, many of which have received awards and honors. Twelve of his titles, most recently Charles A. Lindbergh: A Human Hero and When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS have been named Notable Children's Books by the American Library Association. In 1996 he received the Washington Post--Children's Book Guild Award for Nonfiction for his body of work. Mr. Giblin lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

An ideal introduction to how heiroglyphics were decoded.
"The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone" is accessible to our 9-year-old would-be Egyptologist with just a bit of vocabulary help from adults, yet is not the least insulting to her parents. This small book, with fewer than 100 pages, largeish type, and many clear illustrations, gives a readable and straightforward account of how the Rosetta stone allowed scholars to understand and even find the pronunciation of a language long after its last speaker was long dead. We learn, for example, that to the ancients, she was "Cleopadra" and not "Cleopatra".

There is enough detail to help understand the process, and to convince the reader that the reconstructions are sound. The stone and its translation is put into its historical context, both ancient and modern.

This is an admirable, brief, and inexpensive introduction to the subject, and is well-written. The professional will look elsewhere, and the complete greek, demotic, and heiroglyphic texts are available in the inexpensive Dover reprint of E.A. Wallis Budge's "The Rosetta Stone", which I review separately.

This is a young persons book, written with not much detail
A nice little book, easy to read and worth the price paid for it. I would have liked to see more detail, perhaps in the next book I buy. I gave it three stars as it is a light report of the Rosetta Stone. I read the whole book in about 1/2 hour. It does have other sources from which to select more detailed books.

The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone, found in Egypt in 1799 by the French but later turned over to the British, contains text written in three alphabets: Greek, Egyptian, and hieroglyphics. Decoding the hieroglyphics on the stone remained a puzzle to many experts for years. This book provides a biography of the stone, describing the contributions made by many linguists that eventually led to deciphering the mysterious symbols.

Black and white photographs of the stone as well as portrait illustrations of the men who helped decode the symbols break up the text. The book provides a very informative history of the writing system of ancient Egypt.