McMurchy-Barber, Gina. 2008. Reading the Bones: A Peggy Henderson Adventure. ISBN 978-1-55002-732-7. 148 pages, paperback, brief bibliography of age-appropriate texts.
Reading the Bones is an excellent introduction for middle school kids (8-12 years old) to the tough questions about archaeology and cultural resource management. Written as a juvenile novel, the book follows the story of Peggy Henderson, a spunky middle-schooler.
Peggy lost her father seven years ago and is sent off by her mother to spend the summer with her strict uncle and aunt in the small town of Crescent Beach, British Columbia. There, while tending the garden she discovers a human skull, and with that discovery the complex world of First Nations archaeology opens up.
A Few Adventurous Weeks
Over a few adventurous weeks, Peggy learns about archaeology up close. She meets an older woman archaeologist and witnesses and takes a role in a small archaeological dig. Much of the plot is dedicated to the ethical issues in cultural heritage preservation: collecting, indigenous people's rights, and the perennial who-owns-the-past question. She meets an avaricious antique dealer (who isn't really all that bad of a guy after all), and a Salish chief, who presents a First Nations viewpoint of the proceedings.
Interlaced through it all are descriptions of what prehistoric Coastal Salish life might have been like, set in vignettes describing the last days of Talusip, the man who 5,000 years ago was buried in what is now Aunt Margaret's back garden.
More Adventures?
Peggy's adventure is resolved, and her home life settles down in the end. Although the subtitle is "A Peggy Henderson Adventure" I can't find any others in the collection. The author, Gina McMurchy-Barber, is an educator who has won awards for her work in promoting Canadian history, and so it seems as if there is the possibility that Peggy may have more adventures to come. That would be great!
Peggy's adventure includes a fairly accurate distillation of some of the issues surrounding small scale cultural resource management, and as such it is useful and (hopefully) entertaining way to learn about modern archaeology.
