The Black-and-White Illustrations

Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

The Egypt Game is a chapter book, but black-and-white illustrations by Alton Raible are scattered throughout its pages. The illustrations are done in a sketchy, charcoal style with emphasis on showing what the children look like.

We don't get a ton of illustration of Egypt itself, or of the altars that the kids set up—but there are plenty of illustrations of the kids performing rituals, or of April in her fancy-shmancy get-up, fake eyelashes and all.

Like the hieroglyphics that the kids in The Egypt Game create, the drawings in the book add to the richness of the story. They don't show everything—just enough to get the ball rolling and give the readers a starting point for their imaginations to take off.