City News

In the children’s historical novel The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw follows the story of a young Egyptian boy named Ranofer living in ancient Egypt around 1400 B.C. It was first published in 1961 and received a Newbery Honor Award in 1962.

Ranofer is a 12 year old orphan whose mother died at birth. His life changed drastically when his father Thutra, a respected goldsmith, passed away. Ranofer hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps and dreams of becoming a skillful and master goldsmith. His end goal is to be able to create beautiful ornaments for Queen Tiy.

Unfortunately, his abusive half-brother Gebu doesn't let him. Instead, he only allows Ranofer to be a porter at Rekh’s goldsmith store. Ranofer constantly struggles from Gebu’s evil control. Throughout the book, Gebu is always starving, humiliating, or beating Ranofer. Gebu is a master stonecutter, meaning he is of substantial size and brawny so he can easily overpower the starved Ranofer. One day, Ranofer notices that the amount of gold is not tallying up right at Rekh’s shop. He eventually concludes that a Babylonian porter named Ibni has been giving Ranofer wineskins smuggling gold to give to Gebu. Ranofer then gets an idea and realizes the only way he can break free from Gebu’s sovereignty is to prove that he is a thief.

Ranofer gains two friends in the story. One is named Heqet, who is of similar age to Ranofer and is always joking to put Ranofer at ease. The other is called The Ancient, because he is one of the oldest in the town. The Ancient cuts papyrus stalks for a living. All three become fast friends and promise to help prove Gebu is a criminal. Things take a sharp turn, however, when Ranofer’s advances to becoming a goldsmith are shattered due to Gebu forcing him to work at the stone cutting shop instead because Ibni was caught. Ranofer thinks of stonework as crude and boring, the complete opposite of the beautiful art of goldsmithing.

With the help of his new friends, Ranofer eavesdrops on Gebu and his other evil accomplices. Ranofer discovers that Gebu is a tomb raider after breaking into Gebu’s room and finding a golden goblet with the Pharaoh's name imprinted on it. Even worse, Heqet learns that Gebu and his associates are planning to break into Queen Tiy’s parent’s tomb! Ranofer and his friends follow Gebu to try and catch him in order to get Ranofer’s freedom.

One of the aspects I love about the book is that the main character never gave up even though he was going through constant mistreatment. The resilience that Ranofer demonstrated was amazing throughout the entire novel. I also really enjoyed the setting and time of the book. The author made it feel as if you were living during that time period and what usual jobs were like. The main character was likable as well as the side characters. Eloise Jarvis McGraw portrayed Gebu as downright terrifying which undoubtedly intensified the story.

This book is a fantastic narrative full of courage, friendship, and mystery. I would absolutely suggest this book to anyone who would enjoy a story about a strong main character with a dream against a cruel antagonist in a historical setting.

 Check out the Golden Goblet from NBPL!