Graeme Base’s latest book is set in Egypt and is called
The Jewel Fish of Karnak
Far, far away in Ancient Egypt, Jackal and Ibis are brought before the Cat Pharaoh to be punished for stealing from the town market. In a merciful moment, the cat Pharaoh decides to give the friends one last chance. She tells them they must journey up the River Nile to the temple of Karnak and bring back something that has been taken from her – a beautiful and precious Jewel Fish. But she has a warning for the two prisoners:
‘Do not take anything else while you are in Karnak. And be warned that the Jewel Fish is magical. Be sure it does not get wet.’
Jackal and Ibis are not very clever and ignore the Cat Pharaoh’s words by taking a few more riches for themselves . . .
Graeme Base is the master of puzzles…in this book you will find hieroglyphics, sparkling jewels and a very clever mechanical device built into the back of the book.
Watch this interview with Graeme and find out more about the story and the puzzles you will need to solve to discover and capture the Jewel Fish
Visit Graeme Base’s website and select the KARNAK icon. Click on the image of the book to reveal the challenge you will need to solve as you read the story…
Good luck!
Hi Miss Y and students,
Graham Base has always been one of my favourite childhood authors. I cannot wait to see his new book. It has hieroglyphics in it and we are learning about ancient egypt in our Wonders of the World inquiry unit.
Who is your favourite author?
From Miss Dwyer
Hi Miss Dwyer
We are big fans of Graeme Base too!
We really loved The Legend of the Golden Snail last year and lots of grades drew their own Snailing ships – they were spectacular! (I’m sad I didn’t have time to take photos as it was near the end of the year and I was so busy!!)
Last year I was lucky to see the original illustrations from The Waterhole at our State Library – they were so amazing in their detail and very large too!
Graeme’s new book will definitely suit your Inquiry topic when you look at Ancient Egypt. I’m going to be doing some work with this book with some of our students shortly.
It is way too hard for me to name a favourite author!!! As a Teacher-Librarian I have MANY favourites! I think I am so lucky to be able to buy lots of wonderful books by our talented author and illustrators for our LRC. (And I usually get to read them first!)
I hope you can get a copy of The Jewel Fish of Karnak to share with your class…
Miss Y 🙂
Hi again,
We had Jeanie baker with her artwork visiting the NT last year and it was phenomenal. We would love you to share the new Graham Base book with us.
Have you read ‘Ali the Bold Heart’ by Jane Jolley? It is a deeply moving book about a boy in a refugee camp bringing happiness through magic shows. We decided to perform a magic show via skype to Iranian refugee kids here in Darwin. We love meaningful literature!
Miss Dwyer
Hi Miss Dwyer
Did you get to see the pictures from Jeannie Baker’s latest book, “Mirror”? It’s an amazing book!
We have “Ali the Bold Heart” in our LRC and use it in our units of work on refugees. I agree that it’s a very moving book. Have you read “A True Person” or “The Colour of Home”? They are other similar picture books.
I like meaningful literature too – I think we have something in common!
I love the way your class performed their magic show via Skype…it would have had a huge impact on the Iranian refugee children!
Miss Y 🙂
Yes we have those books too!
We have just read today ‘One of theose Days’ by Amy KR. Do you know her? She has You Tube Clips called ‘The Beckoning of Lovely’ where she did some happiness projects in her community. The next and final project comes out 11/11/11. Be sure to stay tuned!
http://www.whoisamy.com/
Literature that moves us to action is our favourite!
Miss Dwyer
This is such a mythical book and has fun puzzles.
Martin
Hi Martin
This is definitely a great mythical story. It is also a fable because it is a story with a message.
I was so impressed when you came into the LRC to show me that you had worked out the colours of the Jewel Fish and solved the puzzle – very clever work!
Thank you for printing a Jewel Fish for me.
Miss Y 🙂
A wonderful and mystical book. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it with my daughter this afternoon. However, it looks like the challenge has been removed from the website. We believe we’ve decoded it but feel unrequited that we can’t find out if we got it right or not.
Hi Brett
Thank you for leaving a comment on our LRC Blog
I have checked Graeme Base’s website. Select the “Books” icon and slide down the scroll to The Jewel Fish of Karnak and select it. When the next scroll opens up slide down to where it says “Quest” – work your way through it and you should have your answer!
It’s great to hear you enjoyed sharing this fabulous book with your daughter…
Happy reading!
Miss Y 🙂
Ahhhh, we were using an iPad and the content was Flash based (not supported on iOS). We found it all using a regular computer… Both cases now solved!
Wow, that was a very quick response, thanks Miss Y!!!
Yay! Glad it’s all sorted…
Miss Y 🙂