Spoiler-free summary: Ranofer is a 12-year-old orphaned boy living in ancient Egypt. He is working for a goldsmith, as his father did before he died, but since his death he has been living with his adult half brother, a stonecutter named Gebu. Gebu mistreats Ranofer, but without him, he would be destitute and homeless. When Ranofer learns that Gebu is involved in criminal activity, a chain of events begins that will change his life. The Golden Goblet is an exciting adventure story rich with historical detail.
Discussion: The first quarter or so this book was a real drag to get into, but this might have been a personal preference issue. I thought I had the trajectory of the novel predicted near the beginning: Ranofer was mistreated, he would attempt to reveal Gebu’s crimes, things would get even worse, and only at the end would he be redeemed. “Kid getting abused,” even knowing the ending will be happy, is not something I enjoy reading. It turns out I didn’t have the arc right, so once I got past the first third, I settled in and had a little more trust in the author.
As I mentioned in the preview on my last post, this was the first book by an author I had already read: Moccasin Trail was also by McGraw. Given the Christian moralizing in that book — the climax is a white boy who was raised by Native Americans reconnecting with Christianity — I had assumed that was something that McGraw would find important to include everywhere, but this goes hard on depicting Egyptian religion with seemingly no judgement.
The strength of Moccasin Trail was its immersion into the historical setting, and that applies here too. I don’t have a sense of the historical accuracy, but it certainly feels like a well-researched novel, and McGraw clearly had locations, lifestyles, foods, religion, etc., plotted out in detail in her mind before writing. Looking at her list of novels, there are at least a couple others before The Golden Goblet that are set in ancient Egypt, so this seems to be a passion of hers, and I think middle schoolers who enjoy adventure-type stories would still get into this book today thanks to the settings she lays out. As I said, the book starts slow, but it builds its inertia as the story develops, and the last few chapters absolutely barrel along in their narrative.
Next on the list is a recent one: Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee.
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