IMPORTANT: Comprehension questions will be in chronological order as you read through the story. Page numbers are approximate, and will vary with different editions of the book.
Section 1: Chapters 1 – 3
Vocabulary
- caper: skip or dance about in a lively or playful manner
- knead: to massage, work moistened flour or clay into dough
- litter: a vehicle containing a bed or seat enclosed by curtains and carried on men’s shoulders or by animals
- lumber: move in a slow, heavy, awkward way
- papyrus: a plant used by ancient Egyptians to make rope, sandals and a type of paper to write on
- wail: a prolonged high-pitched cry of pain, grief, or anger
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- They let him caper around the field until he was tired out. (Chapter 3, pg. 35)
- “…Maybe I could get one of the wooden bakers that kneads dough if you pull a string – or I could get mother a new bracelet.” (Chapter 1, pg. 7)
- Num followed with the litter they would need to carry them through the streets of Memphis. (Chapter 1, pg. 10)
- The two oxen lumbered slowly toward the gate, and Kaffe kept calling them and waving his handful of grass. (Chapter 3, pg. 32)
- Num was there waiting to hand him his kilt and necklace and help strap on his papyrus sandals. (Chapter 1, pg. 8)
- The little girl shrieked and clung to her mother, the woman wailed, and there were tears even in the man’s eyes. (Chapter 2, pg. 19)
Comprehension Questions
- When Kaffe sees his best kilt carefully folded on the chair he remembers that his father is taking him to Memphis to spend the copper rings he had been saving. (Chapter 1, pg. 6)
- Kaffe considers buying a husk ball, a wooden baker, a bracelet for his mother or a dagger with his copper rings. (Chapter 1, pg. 7)
- Kaffe’s mother was concerned that he had too much money to spend and that he would spend the money foolishly. (Chapter 1, pgs. 8 – 9)
- On the boat ride to Memphis the slaves row the oars of the boat, tow the smaller boat and cook meals. (Chapter 1, pg. 10)
- While in Memphis Socharis needs to go to the slave market to buy a field hand and a woman for Kaffe’s mother. (Chapter 1, pg. 11)
- Kaffe’s real name is Oserkaf but was only used on special occasions. (Chapter 2, pg. 16)
- Anhotep suggest that Socharis buy the husband and wife and he buy their little girl. (Chapter 2, pg. 18)
- Kaffe decides to buy the little girl so that the family can stay together and his father won’t make an enemy of Anhotep by buying the girl. (Chapter 2, pg. 19)
- After Kaffe buys the girl for thirteen copper rings Socharis is afraid that he may have made an enemy of Anhotep. (Chapter 2, pg. 21)
- Although at first Kaffe’s mother thinks he has been foolish to buy the girl, but after hearing his reason for doing so she think him kind and thoughtful. (Chapter 2, pg. 27)
- As Kaffe and Sari go to fetch the oxen from the pasture Ani reminds them to fasten the gate as Red Boy, Socharis’s prize bull was also in the pasture and wasn’t to get out. (Chapter 3, pg. 31)
- Kaffe and Sari flee to a nearby fig tree and climb into it to flee Red Boy who is charging after them. (Chapter 3, pgs. 33 – 34)
Section 2: Chapters 4 – 5
Vocabulary
- bellow: (of a person or animal) emit a deep loud roar, typically in pain or anger
- cackle: (of a bird, especially a hen or goose) give a harsh clucking cry
- courteous: polite, respectful, or considerate in manner
- shaduf: is a hand operated device for lifting water consisting of a long pole with a bucket on one end and a counterweight on the other
- sickle: a short-handled farming tool with a semicircular blade, used for cutting
- threshing: to separate grain from a plant, typically with a flail or by the action of a revolving mechanism grain, lopping, or trimming
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- There was a great deal of shouting and bellowing and ropes flying through the air and dust in such thick clouds that it was hard to see what was going on. (Chapter 4, pg. 49)
- Everyone was talking and laughing, and the geese were cackling and the cattle lowing. (Chapter 4, pg. 41)
- “We shall have him put into a pen until after we have refreshed ourselves with such poor food as the house affords,” he said courteously , bowing to his guest. (Chapter 4, pg. 45)
- Into them the slaves dipped buckets fastened to long poles, which they called shadufs , and then poured the water on the fields. (Chapter 5, pg. 56)
- The curved blades of their sickles flashed in the sun as they worked. (Chapter 4, pg. 38)
- When the patient little donkeys were loaded, they were lead off to the threshing floor. (Chapter 4, pg. 38)
Comprehension Questions
- When harvesting nothing is ever wasted because there are too many hungry people to be fed. (Chapter 4, pg. 38)
- Anhotep sends a letter to Socharis requesting that he bring his prize bull to the harvest festival to fight Red Boy. (Chapter 4, pg. 39)
- The family brings wheat, linen, honey, butter, olive oil, geese, ducks, cows and goats to offer the gods at the temple. (Chapter 4, pg. 41)
- The god and goddesses shown on the temple walls are Hathor, Horus, Re, Geb, and Nut. (Chapter 4, pgs. 41 & 44)
- Anhotep’s bull is named The Nubian. (Chapter 4, pg. 45)
- Wooden balls are put on the tips of the bull’s horns so that neither bull will be hurt during the fight. (Chapter 4, pg. 46)
- When Ben and Kaffe return to the ring where the bull fight took place they find the wooden ball that had fallen off The Nubian’s horn and it was cracked before the fight started. (Chapter 4, pgs. 52 – 53)
- Every year the god of the Nile, Osiris sends a flood and the river gets bigger and bigger and overflows. When the water goes down a rich fertile mud is left behind is ready for planting. (Chapter 5, pg. 56)
- As Kaffe and Sari walk across the fields on their way home from their picnic they notice that the ditches of water are deeper than they were on the way out. (Chapter 5, pg. 62)
- Kaffe and Sari are rescued from the river by an unexpected person, Anhotep, who has his slave help them out. (Chapter 5, pgs. 67 – 68)
Section 3: Chapters 6 – 7
Vocabulary
- dike: a long wall or embankment built to prevent flooding from the sea
- lapidary: relating to stone and gems and the work involved in engraving, cutting, or polishing
- mastaba: an ancient Egyptian tomb rectangular in shape with sloping sides and a flat roof
- pyramid: a monumental structure with a square or triangular base and sloping sides that meet in a point at the top
- pottery: pots, dishes, and other articles made of earthenware or bake clay
- romp: (especially of a child or animal) play roughtly and energetically
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- From the dike it looked like the whole world was flooded. (Chapter 6, pg. 72)
- “There is a lapidary who has a shop in this street,” said Socharis. (Chapter 7, pg. 85)
- They were called mastabas. (Chapter 6, pg. 79)
- “We have them, too, only we call them pyramids…” (Chapter 6, pg. 73)
- “Next they went to the potter’s where they saw rows and rows of green and blue pottery jars and bowls in which some of the food for the pyramid was to be put.” (Chapter 7, pg. 84)
- “…And that often, after we had finished our studying, your father, the great Snefru, would romp with us in the garden and ask us about what we had learned?” (Chapter 7, pg. 91)
Comprehension Questions
- Egypt is very flat and Sari’s homeland is filled with hills and mountains. (Chapter 6, pg. 72)
- Khufu’s pyramid is special as no other pharaoh has built one as large as his. (Chapter 6, pg. 74)
- Sari agrees with Kaffe’s claim that the pyramid might look like a mountain when she says the pyramid looks like a “great steep mountain that no one could ever climb.” (Chapter 6, pg. 75)
- Socharis says that the pyramid has a secret entrance so that the pharaoh can be buried inside the pyramid, but no one knows where it is because Khufu doesn’t want his treasures stolen. (Chapter 6, pg. 77)
- Socharis like all Egyptian nobleman is building a tomb so that when he dies his soul has somewhere to live for eternity. (Chapter 6, pg. 78)
- Kaffe asks that a picture of he and Sari be painted on the last wall of Socharis’s tomb. (Chapter 6. pg. 81)
- Socharis visits the craftmen and their workshops because it is his job to make sure that the items made for Khufu’s pyramid are being made as Khufu ordered. (Chapter 6, pg. 83)
- Kaffe and Sari see blue turquoise, lapis lazuli, carnelian, and malachite at the lapidary’s shop. (Chapter 7, pg. 86)
- Socharis is angry with the lapidary after he sees the stone Kaffe and Sari have found because he believes it has been stolen from the tomb of Khufu’s father Sneferu. (Chapter 7, pg. 88)
- When Socharis, Kaffe and Sari are brought before the pharoah, Socharis and Kaffe bow before him, and Sari because she is a slave knelt and touched her head to the ground. (Chapter 7, pg. 90)
- Pharaoh Khufu entrusts Socharis to lay a trap for the robbers stealing treasures from Snefru’s tomb. (Chapter 7, pg. 93)
Section 4: Chapters 8 – 9
Vocabulary
- loyal: giving or showing firm and constant support or allegiance to a person or institution
- pitch: a swaying or oscillation of a ship, aircraft or vehicle
- protest: a statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something
- smother: to have the nose and mouth covered by something or someone
- traitor: a person who betrays a friend, country, principle
- willful: having or showing a stubborn and determined intention to do as one wants, regardless of the consequences or effects
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- “Your loyalty is worth a hundred such vases, but I have only this one to give you…” (Chapter 9, pgs. 120 – 121)
- The bearers were plowing through the soft sand which gave under their feet and pitched the litter this way and that. (Chapter 8, pg. 101)
- By this time the guards were helping Anhotep to his feet, and Anhotep was protesting that what Kaffe had said was outrageous. (Chapter 8, pg. 108)
- There were pins and needles in his hands and feet, and he was nearly smothered.(Chapter 8, pg. 99)
- “What they do to all traitors,” answered Socharis. (Chapter 8, pg. 110)
- “…Probably those willful children of our master’s are playing again after they are supposed to be in bed.” (Chapter 8, pg. 98)
Comprehension Questions
- Kaffe and Sari are unable to sleep because they are so excited to be at the royal palace and are thinking about Socharis and wishing they could go to Snefru’s pyramid with him. (Chapter 8, pg. 96)
- Kaffe and Sari get past the guards when Kaffe unties one of his sandals and throws it away from their direction, which causes such a loud noise that the guards leave to investigate. (Chapter 8, pg. 97)
- Socharis discovers Kaffe and Sari when a feather drifts into Kaffe’s nose and he lets out a sneeze. (Chapter 8, pg. 100)
- Unable to take the time to send the children home, Socharis tells Kaffe and Sari that they can come with him to the pyramid but they may not go into the pyramid with him or after him, but must stay with the guards outside the pyramid. (Chapter 8, pg. 103)
- When Kaffe realizes that the man coming out of the pyramid tunnel is not his father he lowers his head like Red Boy and charged into the stomach of the man. (Chapter 8, pg. 106)
- Kaffe is shocked and amazed when the torch shows the man from the tunnel’s face because it is Anhotep! (Chapter 8, pg. 108)
- Although Kaffe is a grown boy of ten he cries when his father collapses onto the ground. (Chapter 8, pg. 109)
- Socharis does not believe that Anhotep will come back to the pyramid to rob it because the guards will be on the lookout for him and if he were caught, he would be put to death. (Chapter 8, pg. 110)
- As Socharis, Kaffe and Sari reach the palace in the early morning, the first person they see is Nasha, the wife and mother of Socharis and Kaffe. (Chapter 9, pg. 114)
- Khufu is a satisfactory person to tell the adventure of Anhtoep and the pyramid because he oh-ed and ah-ed at the telling. (Chapter 9, pg. 117)
- For their part in discovering who was robbing Sneferu’s pyramid, Khufu gives Socharis a beautiful vase for his tomb, a length of fine linen to Nasha, a gold hilted dagger that was meant for Khufu’s eldest son to Kaffe and to Sari a necklace of turquoise beads. (Chapter 9, pg. 121)
- On the last wall of his mastaba, Socharis decides to tell the story of everything that has happened since the day at the slave market, including Red Boy chasing Kaffe and Sari up into a fig tree. (Chapter 9, pg. 122)