Read Bee Season: A Novel by Myla Goldberg on the plane back yesterday. I've been meaning to get to it for ages, and finally checked it out of the library and took it along with me.
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.
It wasn't exactly what I had expected -- since all I knew in advance was it was something about spelling bees (and I loved Spell Bound) but I definitely enjoyed it and it was perfect for a plane ride read.
Posted by Emily at November 30, 2004 09:28 AM