Book of the Week: Child of the Morning
We are taking a trip in the way-back machine this week for our Butterflies & Aliens Library Book of the Week!
Child of the Morning by Pauline Gedge was published in 1977 and I read it for the first time in 1988. It was a pivotal read for me as an eighteen year old for two reasons. The first reason is that I discovered Pauline Gedge is an Albertan author. I never thought a real author would live in Alberta. I have no idea why I thought that outside of thinking that authors are “important" and surely must live somewhere “important”. But knowing that Pauline Gedge was a woman and she lived in Alberta and wrote this amazing book was a revelation for me.
The second reason it was a pivotal read is that up to that point, I primarily read science fiction and fantasy. But I bought the book from the Wee Book Inn on Whyte Ave in Edmonton because it said on the back cover “…it brings back to life the awesome Hatshepsut, the only woman pharaoh of ancient Egypt.” We know now that there were more female pharaohs, but that line blew my mind and I just had to read about this woman.
So the book is a fictionalized, but tremendously well researched, account of the life of Hatshepsut and I was fully immersed in living in Egypt alongside Hatshepsut. I had never felt so immediately present in setting and circumstance and so invested in a main character. To this day I weep for Hatshepsut, but more importantly I was gripped by her intelligence, strength, drive, and perseverance. She was an inspiring woman who reigned for around 22 years. Under her rule Egypt saw peace and prosperity. She also oversaw larger scale construction including the temple at Karnak.
Of course, after she died, the rulers following her tried to erase her from history. Her statues and monuments were destroyed and many of her achievements were credited to men.
I haven’t read this book since I was 18 but I do hope to read it again at some point (if my eyeballs can handle the excruciatingly small type) and have no idea if I will love it as much as I did in 1988. But this book, and Hatshepsut herself, stuck with me for decades and, while I have never travelled to Egypt, I will always be fascinated by the history of ancient Egypt. I have since read every book Pauline Gedge has written, most of them set in ancient Egypt, and have consumed other Egypt books, fiction and nonfiction.
And just in October of 2023, I was in Houston, Texas, and the Houston Museum of Natural Science has a huge Ancient Egypt exhibit. I spent hours in there looking at the artifacts and replicas, reading about the items and soaking in the wealth of knowledge and beauty and connection with the past.
So while we are going through troubling times, and women especially have a lot to worry about as our rights are clawed back by awful politicians, I find solace in knowing that women were strong thousands and thousands of years ago, and we can keep being strong today.
We all have those books that we can describe as life-changing and this one was life-changing for me.
I hope this post will inspire you to check out Pauline Gedge and her books – they will keep you going for a while if you love them <3
Happy Reading!
– Stacey
Pick up a copy at your local indie bookseller!
