The Egypt Game
by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Middle grade · ages 8–12 · grades 3–7 · 740L · 224 pages · 2007
Why we'd hand it over
A quietly brilliant friendship epic that rewards rereading—the mystery unfolds organically through play, and the prose trusts kids to hold complexity (multiple POV, time shifts, moral ambiguity about the old man).