Review Rating
With the October 2004 review, we began rating the books on the basis of one to four trowels;
one trowel= don’t bother, to four trowels= run right out to your local book store and buy the hard cover!
Golden Oldies - reviewing previously unreviewed books by previously reviewed “greatest hits” authors!
As we approach nearly twenty-five years of the MVAC reviews of archaeological fiction, I thought it would be fun to re-visit six of the authors whose works have been reviewed in the past. Three of these authors have sadly passed away since I first reviewed them (Margot Arnold, Lynn Hamilton, and Elizabeth Peters); two have “retired” their archaeologist protagonists, Gideon Oliver (Aaron Elkins), and Emma Fielding (Dana Cameron); and one, (Kate Ellis) continues to put DI Wesley Peterson and his friend, archaeologist Neil Watson, in harm’s way as solve contemporary crimes that have their roots in the distant past. While these authors have been reviewed previously, these books have not.
Youth Archaeology Book Reviews by Bill Gresens
Reviewed on: June 1, 2005
A number of people (well, okay-one or two) have asked about reviews of children’s fiction that incorporates archaeological themes. I hope to do one or two reviews per year of such books-once I begin to get more familiar with the literature.
In the meantime, I do want to recommend a number of books by an author that I read when I was a kid. Five years ago I would not have done this because the books have been out of print for decades. But through the magic of E-Bay, they are available-and at very reasonable prices, I might add. The author is Troy Nesbit, a pseudonym for Franklin Folsom, a native Westerner, who wrote many fiction and non-fiction books for young readers. He also co-authored with his wife Mary The Story of Archaeology in America and a best-selling guide to archaeological sites in the Mountain West that went through many re-printings.
His juvenile fiction-all of which I highly recommend are as follows:
The Mystery at Rustlers’ Fort (1954)
The Jinx of Payrock Canyon (1954)
The Indian Mummy Mystery (1954)
The Diamond Cave Mystery (1956)
The Hidden Ruin (1957)
All were published by Whitman Publishing of Racine, Wisconsin and all receive four trowels! (I was a very discerning young reader!)
