Secret Of The Prince’s Tomb

“No!” Beth cried. She pulled back. The guard pushed her toward the door. “You were attempting to help a slave escape,” he said. He opened the cell door with a key. He roughly pushed the cousins inside. Beth fell to her knees on wet straw. Patrick stumbled and fell against a stone wall. Before he could turn around, he heard a BANG and then a CLANK.

Book:Secret of the Prince's Tomb (AIO Imagination Station Books) by Marianne Hering and Marshal Younger, Focus on the Family and Tyndale House Publishing, 2012

Genre: Adventure

Target Audience: Boys and girls 8-13

Subjects: Slavery, Ancient Egypt, Trust in God, Hope

Summary: Patrick is miserable. Summer vacation is almost over and it’s time for school to start back up. He might as well be a slave. It’s the same thing. Or so he thinks. Mr. Whittaker isn’t convinced having teachers giving instructions and hard work is as bad at Patrick believes. So he sends Patrick and Beth to experience genuine slavery for themselves. They arrive in ancient Egypt on the day the Pharaoh gives in to his fear that the Israelites are too numerous and therefore dangerous and takes action to turn them into slaves. Patrick and Beth make friends with a young Israelite girl and the Pharaoh’s son. But being friends with an Israelite isn’t safe. Helping a slave is a criminal offense and worthy of being thrown in jail!

Notes: This is the 7^th in the Imagination Station Adventures series. The series is much like the secular Magic Tree House books but instead of wizards and magic it’s imagination and inventions giving them the different place/different time experiences. The radio show the concept is taken from is very solid – full of great spiritual elements and lessons and challenges as well as fun and excitement. This book did a much better job than some of the other in the series at focusing on spiritual elements. The spiritual elements in this story is first of all, the very history of the Israelite people as recorded in Scripture. Multiple Biblical events are referenced from Genesis and Exodus. It also focuses on where hope is found. The characters are wanting to have Joseph’s bones in their possession to give them hope. They are putting their faith in an object, just like the Egyptians around them. Patrick and Beth help them see that their hope and faith needs to be in something living, the one true God. As with the Magic Tree House, part of the focus of the series is on giving a picture of the time and place featured in the setting of the book.

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Jeremiah 10:10 – But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.

Psalm 42:11 – Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.