Oracles of Delphi Keep (Oracles of Delphi Keep Series #1) Book

I read this book as part of an ongoing study of children's books which use Greek or Roman antiquity in some way. The first few chapters were slow-ish going for me, but once I got into the story, I found myself wanting to keep reading; the author handled the pacing of a long book well, I thought.

But I grew increasingly frustrated with the way in which the author presented Classical elements. I don't expect artists and authors to be "true" to ancient sources or even always faithful to ancient historical facts, but when there's a departure, there should (I think) be some pay-off, some reason why the author twisted the tradition in a particular way. I couldn't tell why Laurie made certain unhistorical choices when it would have been possible for her to stay true to history without hurting her plot. Her treatment of the development of the Greek alphabet, for instance, is quite oddly inaccurate and to no real end. Of course, she's not obligated to be historical--but why not be historical when you can be? Or, if she wanted to go off-road as much as she did (the alphabet issue is just the tip of the iceberg!), why not create a fictive Mediterranean culture and imbue it with aspects of Greece, Rome, Phoenicia, etc., while giving yourself the latitude to be eclectic and inauthentic? It seems strange to me for an author to want the cachet of Classical antiquity, to act as if she were presenting ancient facts and artifacts, but then to have those fictional facts and artifacts be so incredibly different from anything that we actually know.

I was also disturbed by Laurie's presentation of archaeology as treasure-hunting. Not cool. I imagine that Laurie would excuse herself by saying that she set her story in the 1930s, when heritage management and archaeological standards of conduct were different, but that doesn't get her out of this jam (in my opinion). Young readers deserve to know that archaeology should be more than a search for buried treasure and that responsible people who make significant finds do not get rich from their discoveries.

At the end of the book Laurie says that she hopes readers will give her leeway since she's writing fiction--I'm not sure fiction excuses authors from all representational responsibilities, especially when their primary audience is one of young people.