Easy Reader entry in the series. Ralph, and the formerly trippy illustrations, are *much* too tame. I'm disappointed. This isn't any zingier than the Ramona Quimby books. ( )

Rotten Ralph is at his mischievous antics again. Sarah is working on a school project on Egypt, but as usual, Ralph does more harm than good. At every turn, he seems to make more of a mess for Sarah, but of course in the end they figure out a way to salvage her report – with the help of Ralph! This book has a lot of embedded information about Egypt, so could actually be used as an introduction to a unit on Egypt.

Whether you listen to the audio cd, or read the book, Rotten Ralph is such a great series. This book is all about ancient Egypt. Cats were first domestic pets there (although if it were up to Ralph, people would be pets instead). It takes a little while for Ralph to get the hang of it - he tries to build an ancient pyramid out of books, and then tries to write hieroglyphics on the wall of the library. After getting kicked out, he goes home and overflows the bathtub, so that the hallway becomes the nile river, and then turns the bedroom into a royal mess when he tries to plant palm trees in sand. Finally Sarah has had it when he spills beetles all over her and messes up her school project. But when he dresses up like the Sphinx and saves the project, she forgives him and buys him candy (after all, didn't the Egyptians invent candy too??)

Ralph is a lot less rotten than I remember, though the illustrations are true to my memory. The bright colors that were popular when I was a child are back again, making this book look not very dated at all. The text gives information about ancient Egypt while keeping the reader amused through the antics of Ralph as he tries to help Sarah prepare for a school project.