April Hall Timeline and Summary

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• At the beginning of the book, April Hall moves to a college town where she'll be staying with her grandmother, Caroline, for a while. Her mother, Dorothea, is going on tour.
• April meets another girl in her building, Melanie, who has a younger brother named Marshall. Hi, Melanie and Marshall.
• They all start playing together and find out that they share a fascination with history—particularly the history of ancient Egypt.
• One day, April, Melanie, and Marshall discover a hole in a fence that leads to an abandoned yard. Spooky.
• There's a bust of Nefertiti in the yard (because the yard connects to an old antiques shop, is our guess) and that seems like reason enough for the kids to pretend that the yard is Egypt.
• April starts going to school with Melanie and befriends another girl in their building named Elizabeth.
• Even though she's making friends and starting to enjoy herself a bit more, she writes to her mother asking when she can go home to Hollywood.
• Luckily, she has a distraction: the Egypt Game takes off. April is especially good at coming up with new rituals and ceremonies, and setting up all the altars to the different Egyptian gods.
• But the game is complicated when a child is murdered in their neighborhood, and no one knows who the killer is. The kids are no longer allowed to play alone outside—which means no more trips to Egypt.
• On Halloween, April convinces the other kids that they should slip away from their trick-or-treating group and return to Egypt. They do so, but are caught by a couple boys from their class—Toby and Ken.
• Toby and Ken join the Egypt Game. At first April is pretty reluctant to let this happen. But soon they all become friends, and even she has to admit that the boys have a lot of good ideas for the game.
• April finally gets a response from her mother, and is devastated to learn that she's gotten married—and that she doesn't want April to come live with her. (Or at least, doesn't have room in her new apartment. But it feels pretty much the same.)
• When April learns about her mom's not-so-mom-ly behavior, she takes out her frustration on her grandmother, Caroline, instead of on her mother.
• One night, April is babysitting Marshall and realizes that she forgot her textbook in Egypt. She takes Marshall with her to get it.
• But when she gets to the fence, April is grabbed by someone from behind—the murderer! She tries to call for help, but can't. The man who owns the antiques shop, the Professor, ends up smashing a window and calling for help.
• April is released and the two kids are taken to the police station, where Marshall identifies their attacker as Mr. Schmitt's cousin (who works at the neighborhood store).
• In the end, April gets a letter from her mother asking her to come visit for Christmas. But April says no—she already has plans with her grandmother and her friends.
• The Professor stops by on Christmas Eve and gives keys to all the kids, including April, so that they can continue to play their game in his yard. Aw.
• The book closes up with April and Melanie discussing how the Egypt Game feels complete…and then bringing up the topic of gypsies. Which might very well be the next game. April's idea again, in case you were curious.