Bee Season (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780385498807)

Eliza Naumann, a seemingly unremarkable nine-year-old, expects never to fit into her gifted family: her autodidact father, Saul, absorbed in his study of Jewish mysticism; her brother, Aaron, the vessel of his father's spiritual ambitions; and her brilliant but distant lawyer-mom, Miriam. But when Eliza sweeps her school and district spelling bees in quick succession, Saul takes it as a sign that she is destined for greatness. In this altered reality, Saul inducts her into his hallowed study and lavishes upon her the attention previously reserved for Aaron, who in his displacement embarks upon a lone quest for spiritual fulfillment. When Miriam's secret life triggers a familial explosion, it is Eliza who must order the chaos.

Myla Goldberg's keen eye for detail brings Eliza's journey to three-dimensional life. As she rises from classroom obscurity to the blinding lights and outsized expectations of the National Bee, Eliza's small pains and large joys are finely wrought and deeply felt.

Not merely a coming-of-age story, Goldberg's first novel delicately examines the unraveling fabric of one family. The outcome of this tale is as startling and unconventional as her prose, which wields its metaphors sharply and rings with maturity. The work of a lyrical and gifted storyteller, Bee Season marks the arrival of an extraordinarily talented new writer.

Author: Myla Goldberg
ISBN-10: 0385498802
ISBN-13: 9780385498807
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Language: English
Published: 05/15/2001
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.49lbs
Size: 8.02h x 5.30w x 0.65d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 7.2
Point Value: 17
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 102710 / Bee Season


Review Citation(s):
BookPage 05/01/2001 pg. 23
New York Times 05/06/2001 pg. 36
Entertainment Weekly 06/01/2001 pg. 82
Entertainment Weekly 11/18/2005 pg. 138