FINN'S SEARCH

Chris Cooper and his parents have moved from Glasgow to a farm in Yett—right near the farm where Chris's friend Finn Lochlan (Finn's Island, 1992, etc.) lives with his father and grandmother. Chris is happy in his new home, except for one thing: Andrew Aldie, the school bully. Both Chris and Andrew will be going to Muirs High School, 14 miles away, in the fall, and Chris is afraid of what Andrew will to do him once the intrepid Finn, who is younger and not yet on his way to high school, is out of the picture. But there are bigger problems to come. Andrew's rich, landowning father plans to turn the beautiful, nearby Roman field into a gravel pit, the noise and dust from which will wreck havoc on the Coopers' and Lochlans' farms. Finn, however, has a plan to save the field: If he and Chris can find evidence that the field had once been the sight of a Roman fort, perhaps the gravel pit will be halted. Finn and Chris start digging, and Finn, against Chris's wishes, allows Andrew to join them. Andrew makes gestures of friendship towards Chris, which mistrustful Chris rejects until he realizes that Andrew seriously wants to turn over a new leaf. The boys find Roman pottery, but the museum cannot afford to excavate and, in the end, the gravel pit is called off by Mr. Aldie himself. Not at all the money-grubber they had imagined, he had sincerely wanted to create jobs for the area's unemployed. A lackluster story made annoying by the whiny Chris. (Fiction. 10-14)