Rating: 3.5 of 5
“Things are only impossible if you stop to think about them.“
Synopsis: “While her friends are spending their summers having pool parties and sleepovers, twelve-year-old Carolina — Carol — is spending hers in the middle of the New Mexico desert, helping her parents move the grandfather she’s never met into a home for people with dementia. At first, Carol avoids prickly Grandpa Serge. But as the summer wears on and the heat bears down, Carol finds herself drawn to him, fascinated by the crazy stories he tells her about a healing tree, a green-glass lake, and the bees that will bring back the rain and end a hundred years of drought. As the thin line between magic and reality starts to blur, Carol must decide for herself what is possible — and what it means to be true to her roots.” (source)
My thoughts: Twelve-year-old Carol meets her Grandpa for the first time, rediscovers her roots, and learns about the cycle of life. The stories Grandpa Serge told were my favorite part of the book, and I loved how real and believable the magic of those stories was. (The Giving Tree came to mind more than once.) For any tween experiencing the slow loss of a grandparent to dementia, or another similar illness, Hour of the Bees may help them process their own feelings and fears. Maybe Carol’s story will show them that sometimes endings are only the beginning.
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(Review cross-posted on LibraryThing and Goodreads.)
Received ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.