Hatshepsut of Egypt -- Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Goosebottom Books. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

Today we are honored to review a book about a very strong woman, Hatshepsut. Have you heard of her? I hadn't, so I found this book fascinating. The book is Hatshepsut of Egypt by Shirin Yim Bridges and illustrated by Albert Nguyen. It is part of The Thinking Girl's Treasury of Real Princesses.

This is a series of books that share real princesses with girls. These are not your average fru fru princesses who wear pretty dresses and sit around waiting to be saved by a prince. These are women who had strength and guts to rule countries.



Hatshepsut was one of her father's favorite children. She often spent time with him even when he was doing his pharaoh duties. After losing Hatshepsut's sister and two brothers her father, Thutmose I, had an issue. A woman could not be his heir. He had Hatshepsut marry her half brother, Thutmose II, who was from a non-royal wife. Thutmose II was a sickly man, so Hatshepsut took on a large role in the government. He died shortly after leaving his wife and a young son by another wife. Since the son was too young to inherit the throne, Hatshepsut was named as his regent. There were several occurrences in Egyptian history where a woman was named regent for a young pharaoh. However a couple of years later Hatshepsut was declared Pharaoh or King of Egypt. Although the records of her reign were mostly destroyed (perhaps by her stepson), there are some picture of her in full pharaoh costume. This would have been a huge step in Egypt at the time. The pharaoh's wore their headdress, collars and a metal beard and no shirt, so her breasts would have been exposed. We did not have much time but I found a printable Pharaoh Headdress on First Palette and made it for Hazel. (They have one to be colored as well.) Alpha Mom also has a Pharaoh's Mummy printable costume with mask and beard as well.  We didn't have time for the coloring this week and I didn't want a complete mummy costume so we just went with the headdress.

 It looks even better on her teddy bear. (He doesn't move when the picture is taken.)

This book was a fun book that introduced a strong woman to us that we had not heard of and helped to revisit Egypt. We have a few posts about Egypt: Egyptian Math: Pyramids, Egyptian Date Cake (Around the World in 12 Dishes), Exploring Egypt part 2 (Around the World in 12 Dishes), Egyptian Cinderella, Rimonah of the Flashing Sword (Egyptian Snow White), a book about Senwosret's Pyramid, and some posts about people who lived in Egypt: Hypatia and Saint Anthony the Great. 

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The book is very complete with maps, timelines and information about how Egyptians lived and dressed during that time. Hatshepsut worked on building relationships with other countries and establishing trade relationships which built up some of the Egyptian wealth. The illustrations are well done especially since not much is left from her time. 

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We really enjoyed learning about this strong woman who ruled a country when women were not suppose to be doing such things. This review is part of the Multicultural Children's Book Day (MCCBD). The MCCBD team’s mission to spread the word and raise awareness about the importance of diversity in children’s literature. Our young readers need to see themselves within the pages of a book and experience other cultures, languages, traditions and religions within the pages of a book. We encourage readers, parents, teachers, caregivers and librarians to follow along the fun book reviews, author visits, event details, a multicultural children’s book linky and via our hashtag (#ReadYourWorld) on Twitter and other social media. 

Multicultural Children’s Book day 2016 Medallion Level Sponsors! #ReadYourWorld

Platinum: Wisdom Tales Press * StoryQuest Books*Lil Libros

Gold: Author Tori Nighthawk*Candlewick Press,* Bharat Babies

Silver: Lee and Low Books*Chronicle Books*Capstone Young Readers T

Tuttle Publishing ,NY Media Works, LLC/KidLit TV* China Institute.org

Bronze: Pomelo Books* Author Jacqueline Woodson*Papa Lemon Books* Goosebottom Books*Author Gleeson Rebello*ShoutMouse Press*Author Mahvash Shahegh*Live Oak Media

Multicultural Children’s Book Day has amazing Co-Host and you can us the links below or view them here.

All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Educators Spin on it, Growing Book by Book, Imagination Soup, I’m Not the Nanny, InCultural Parent, Kid World Citizen, Mama Smiles, Multicultural Kid Blogs, Spanish Playground

 The MCCBD team is also offering a great chance for teachers to get a free diversity book for the classroom!! Be sure to check out the MCCBD 2016 Classroom Reading Challenge for more information.