I found Oops, I Kidnapped a Pharaoh by Luan Goldie a lot of fun. Amusingly-written with just the right amount of irony and a couple of oblique references to Back to the Future, the book tells the story of ‘besties’ Skylar and Dana who travel to ancient Egypt in the magic tuk-tuk (which, astonishingly, has seatbelts) belonging to Skylar’s eccentric nana Nana.
Once there, they meet the young King Tutankhamun who it turns out is a dance sensation (my inner archaeologists grumbles that it is possible, but not proven, that Tutankhamun had a club foot). Skylar and Dana are awestruck, though the young king certainly appears to be a bit of a brat. Perhaps, he was.
After hiding in the boot of the tuk-tuk and returning to the present with the two girls, Tutankhamun continues to be lordly and objectionable—except to the cat. Clever Dana manages to communicate with him through hieroglyphs. In his golden robe, however, ‘Tut’ is a sensation the next day at K-Mania uniting many of the K-pop fan factions in adoration despite being a boy without a band and his ancient Egyptian lyrics being incomprehensible.
The girls’ first attempt to return the ‘slippery little monarch’ to his own time fails and they wander off to various points in geography and history (having accidentally ditched Nana). First they meet with a time-travelling Madame Curie and, with her as their slightly erratic orange-peeling and potentially radioactive guide, see a flurry of historical figures including Benjamin Franklin beneath his kite, Isaac Newton below his apple tree, a rather flamboyant Shakespeare strutting his stuff at The Globe, and Henry VIII marrying Catherine Howard—all while discussing Tutankhamun, time travel, and friendship. At one point the sentence ‘[Tutankhamun is] younger than us and is already responsible for reversing the religopolitical rules put in his place by his predecessor’ lands with a rare clunk (good luck with that one!) even if Dana is just showing off how clever she is, but it is almost immediately redeemed by a good explanation of the Butterfly Effect and a successful attempt to reverse it. Along the way there’s a certain amount of pre-teenage angst about relationships and change which seems good.
Eventually, the girls make it back to K-Mania where Tutankhamun is now headlining, but homesick. Fortunately for us all, history is eventually put back in its place.
In summary, Oops, I kidnapped a Pharaoh exists entirely in its own K-pop universe and it is a funny one. It is fast-paced, readable, and witty.
Nigel Fletcher-Jones
Oops, I Kidnapped a Pharaoh by Luan Goldie
Walker Books
ISBN 9781529512540
£7.99
Published 2025
