Kissing the Bee

It feels like rain again today. We had a nice spring rain yesterday and it feels like we might get some more today. I am definitely ready for warm and sunny. Of course, it won’t be too long before I am complaining about how it is too hot! Can’t make some people happy, I guess!

Kissing the Bee by Kathe Koja is a great spring time novel. It is short—121 pages in length—so it is a quick read. But it is also beautifully written. Dana, Avra and Emil are best friends; Avra and Emil are dating, but the problem is that Dana also loves Emil. This is a strange romantic triangle because the three of them do everything together from working on Emil and Avra’s prom dress and tux to going on dates to working on Dana’s final biology project about bees. The story is told from Dana’s point of view and she weaves the information about bees into the plot to create wonderful figurative language. Dana plans on attending college next year on a scholarship for science writing and Avra plans to leave their small town right after prom. She doesn’t plan on waiting until graduation, but just getting in the car and leaving with Emil. Emil keeps his plans to himself.

Dana also keeps her feelings about Emil to herself because Avra is her best friend. But one day Dana and Emil take a trip without Avra to a local apiary to see the bees and everything changes in their relationship. Dana has always considered Avra to be the queen bee in the hive and has always worked hard not to upset her. But now she is in love with her best friend’s boyfriend and there is no way to avoid the inevitable. This is a great story of young love and friendship and what each means to the other.