Five years after her debut picture-book, The Shipwrecked Sailor: An Egyptian Tale with Hieroglyphs, which presented a children's adaptation of an ancient Egyptian tale from the 19th century BCE, archaeological illustrator Tamara Bower returned to the form with this second marvelous offering. Taken from a longer cycle of Graeco-Roman stories known as "Egyptians and Amazons," which itself belongs to the Story-Cycle of King Petubast, the tale here concerns the battle between Queen Serpot of the Amazons, living and ruling a small kingdom near Assyria, and Prince Pedikhons of Egypt, who invaded her country. After a general battle, the two royals meet for personal combat, only to discover that they are equals, and that they have fallen in love with one another...

How the Amazon Queen Fought the Prince of Egypt is another distinct triumph from Tamara Bower! The story is engaging, and is one of the very few, outside of the author's other book, to present a genuine work of ancient Egyptian literature to children. It was written much later than the story in The Shipwrecked Sailor: An Egyptian Tale with Hieroglyphs, and is found in a scroll held by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Unlike that earlier story, which was written in hieratic, this tale was originally written in the demotic script, which evolved from the hieratic. Like that earlier title, certain sentences throughout the book are translated into hieroglyphs, with a phonetic (as far as that is possible) and literal meaning included. The full, adult version of the story can be found in Miriam Lichtheim's Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume III: The Late Period, where it is known as Prince Pedikhons and Queen Serpot. The back matter here explores the history of the text, gives more information on hieroglyphs, describes all the Assyrian and Egyptian symbolism used in the illustrations, and gives a list of further reading ideas.

I enjoyed this immensely, and as with Bower's other book, finished it with a desire to read more Ancient Egyptian literature. I recently watched the entertaining (albeit highly speculative) television miniseries Tut, which follows the life of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, and have been thinking how unfortunate it is that there aren't more high-quality films set in ancient Egypt. I'd watch a miniseries based on either of Bower's books, in a heartbeat! Recommended to children fascinating by Ancient Egypt, and to anyone looking for unusual picture-books set in the ancient world. ( )

This book tells the story of how Queen Serpot of the Amazons fought Prince Pedikhons of the Egyptians. The Amazons were a society of women who ruled over themselves without any men. When an army from Egypt enters the Amazons' territory, Ashteshyt, the sister of the Amazonian queen, disguises herself as a man to sneak into the Egyptian army's base. She reports back to sister, Serpot, who then leads her army in an attack against the Egyptians. The Amazons win, and Prince Pedikhons is enraged. He challenges Serpot to a battle between just the two of them, and she accepts. The two fight from morning to sunset, where Pedikhons puts down his weapons and declares his respect for Serpot. The two then fall in love and conquer India. At the time, I'm sure that women in Egypt were expected to be subservient to men, which is why Pedikhons believed no woman could ever beat his army. Several times throughout the book, Pedikhons remarks on how women and men aren't equal, but when he and Serpot finally fight, he sees that they are equally matched in strength. Serpot defies what Pedikhons- and most other men at the time- thought a woman should be like. Despite how much I love powerful women in literature, this story managed to bore me. The story is written almost like a history textbook, even though its telling a fictional story inspired by Greek and Egyptian mythology- both of which I love, so I expected to like this book. I find myself wishing I liked this book, but in all honesty, its just too boring. ( )

This book tells the story of the queen of the Amazons fighting the prince of Egypt. To the surprise of the Egyptian prince, the amazonian women are great fighters who are able to keep up with his forces of the Egyptian army. Eventually after the prince and queen fight each other until the sun sets, the prince feels that the women of the amazon are equals to him and his people. They then join sides and conquer other lands together. I did not care for the story too much, although I know it was following how these events happened in history. I admired how they portrayed the queen's independence and courage, but the story centers too much around violence in my opinion. I did like the art work and how it resembled hieroglyphs in scrolls. This book tells you the story through words, images, and hieroglyphs. I liked how this book gives many different ways of communicating the story. The multicultural aspects in this book were great. ( )

This story tells a story of the amazon queen outwitting the Prince of Egypt and his army because he wants to see if women can withstand the same as men. In the End the prince falls in love with the the amazon queen. This book is about bravery and courage and perseverance. I love the book It can be another multicultural book about different cultures. I think I would have this book to just have it for the students can read and to teach bravery and courage. ( )

The story of the Amazon Queen and the Price of Egypt is a story of a queen that is challenged to a war, in responce she sends all women to fight the battle and the men of Egypt are confused as to what had happened. The Prince sees the queen fight and is enchanted with her courage, so he duals her to a match one on one. Both not giving up, in the end the prince sees her as equal and they both conquer India together.