The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra’s Needle by Dan Gutman

I must confess. Until I read The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra’s Needle, a juvenile historical fiction book, I had no idea a 220-ton, 69-feet-high obelisk, carved from one piece of granite in Aswan, Egypt 3,500 years ago by thousands of slaves and free men … now stands in Central Park in New York City.  And it doesn’t even belong to Cleopatra.

The story is told by a mother to her son, a reluctant listener, as they visit Central Park. He is sure he will be bored by her telling, but toward the middle of the story, he becomes very engaged. Why was it carved and who for? If not for Cleopatra, why was it called Cleopatra’s Needle? Why point it towards the sun? How did they move something that large in an upright position?  How did they move it the first time from Aswan to Heliopolis, Egypt, and then to the United States in 1880?  Did the US government really steal it?

Mom’s storytelling skills kept me from wanting to put the book down. She told it from the perspective of the enslaved who spent two years carving it and lifting it up so it pointed toward the sun, the artist who drew the hieroglyphs for the workmen to copy by carving them into the granite, a girl spy from Alexandria who was sure the obelisk was being stolen by the Americans while President Grant was in office, a stowaway on the ship, the Dessoug, that carried the 220 ton Cleopatra’s Needle to New York, and a New York school girl in 1879 and 1881 who watched patiently as the obelisk was moved from the Hudson River…and finally to Central Park.

Included are black and white photos that add to the story.  At the back of the book, are the very important Facts and Fiction.

Enjoy!