My project for course: Introduction to Writing a Children’s Fantasy Novel

This course has given me so much structure and guidance, I would recommend it to anyone who dreams of publishing a book. I've been toying with this particular plot idea for a while, don't have a title for it yet (suggestions are welcome!), and would greatly appreciate any critique or feedback you have to offer.
Also, please bear with my English, it isn't native :)

Lenny Levinson is twelve, going on forty. He is first in his class in just about every subject, never breaks any rules and spends most of his time reading books or playing video games. Lenny is raised by Deborah, a single Mum who also happens to be a doctor. Deborah is strong and smart and opinionated, but also isn't around very much. Lenny therefore spends a lot of his time with his grandparents: Moshe, who can hardly remember his own name nowadays and only mumbles nonsense such as "snakes should only be tickled with feathers", and Hannah, who loves them all dearly and just wishes they would all wear warmer socks.

One day, while rummaging through his grandfather's many treasures (he never throws anything away), Lenny discovers a mysterious disk with strange lines and markings on it. Not knowing what it is, he takes it outside accidentally activating ancient magic, which - in a great blaze of silvery light - awakens Pharaoh Rameses II from his eternal sleep, propelling him into 21st century Israel. Ramses tells Lenny of a powerful curse cast by Apophis, God of evil and chaos, which prevents him from crossing the Realm of the Dead and being reborn as a God.
Regrettably, Lenny is not the only one to witness Ramses' resurrection. His next-door neighbor and lifelong nemesis, Renana, has been spying on him through a hole in the fence, and now demands to be let in on the secret. United by circumstance, the two decide to help Rameses hide (for his own protection) and set out to find a way to reverse Apophis' Curse.

They soon learn that reversing 3,000-year-old magic (all while concealing an Egyptian Pharaoh from your Mum) is much harder than it sounds. Rameses takes the name Remi and tries to blend in but has a hard time adjusting to modern life: there are too many Gods to worship (from actresses to soccer players), his favorite outfit is out of style, and no-one would kneel before him anymore, which is really upsetting. Even mundane activities such as riding the bus prove to be notoriously messy (turns out buses are nothing like chariots!). And to top it all, he needs to sit trough the most awkward Passover dinner ever (you try reading the Haggadah to someone who's actually been there…).

Lenny and Renana learn that the key to reversing Apophis' Curse could be found in the Book of the Dead, an ancient scripture full of demon-repelling, monster-stopping spells.
They discover that certain remnants of the Book are stored in the Museum of Ancient History in Jerusalem, which could only mean one thing: they must sneak in and retrieve it.
Once at the museum, they manage to hide inside the wardrobe until closing time. When the coast is finally clear (and after Remi has had words with a mummy that he seems to have had some sort of feud with), they successfully locate The Book of the Dead. In the Book (only bits of which have survived), they find fragments of a spell devised by the goddess Shabti to protect Pharaoh on his journey through the Realm of the Dead. The instructions are incomplete (not to mention they must climb into a sarcophagus for it to work, ugh!), but Remi attempts to perform the spell anyway.

Unsurprisingly, the spell malfunctions, propelling the three of them into the Realm of the Dead, where they are faced with great perils: a Sphinx that would only let you through if you answer his riddle correctly, the Lake of Unquenchable Fire (where they are hypnotized by mythical sea-creatures), a three-headed serpent that must be tickled with a magical feather (thanks grandpa!), and finally – gruesome, soul-devouring monsters with crocodile heads, that guard the Gates to the Afterlife.
Narrowly escaping death (or re-death, as the case may be for Remi), they prevail and get Remi safely through to the Afterlife. Once Remi goes through the Gates, Apophis' Curse is broken, and Lenny and Renana find themselves home once again.
In the last chapter of the book, Lenny and Renana discover that the mysterious markings on the disk that had started their adventure are some sort of timelines, and that the disk is really a magical sundial, which – they conclude – could bend time. However, they still don't know how it works. They try showing the disk to Lenny's grandpa, asking him about the clue he has provided them, but to no avail. Eventually, they leave the disk be, but one day, when it catches the sunlight at a very special angle….