Matt McAvoy Book Review

The third book I have read in Linda’s vast and visionary series of vocation-educational books for young teens, and this one is a real swashbuckler.  Although she presents archaeology as realistically as possible (a lot of digging), and avoids the Indiana Jones-style action-fantasy, she still manages to portray it as a fun, exciting and rewarding career, for the sake of its historical benefit and merit.  The book is a passionate glimpse into the world of research and information gathering, rightly claiming that the knowledge gleaned from “treasure hunting” is the treasure itself, more so than the artefact. 

One thing which Linda’s books are a little short on is the educational and work route into the career, which I would think is rather notably the premise.  It is rather more about the work itself, and the glorious intangible rewards to be gained.  Once again, Linda’s research into the subject is immense, and she has presented it incredibly articulately for the desired age group, with jargon where necessary and no talking down to the reader.  She delivers her information comprehensively and in full, while including copious fantastic colour cartoon illustrations.  It is a vivid, cheerful work, just as are the others I’ve read from her.

The series, while written with intelligence and grammatical accuracy, is a somewhat rudimentary introduction to the vocational subjects it covers, intended for those readers who are still in the stage of life where they can be anything they want to be, and their education hasn’t yet taken them on a specific path.  It is a fun and insightful project, welcoming kids into every career opportunity there is to offer, and that makes it a joy not just to read, but to consider in terms of what it might achieve; this book might just convince some of them to explore the archaeology vocation further; this is clearly the objective, as Laura, with her foresight and clarity of vision, has provided some fantastically useful appendices – further reading, glossary, etc. – of all that a budding treasure hunter might need to take the first step.  The best I’ve read from the series so far, and I do hope that Linda will continue to send them to me.