She had received ample information on the topic. Her notebook was overflowing with observations, a record of everything she saw and whether it qualified as sex or not.

Over the years she had filled out taxonomies of other subjects, a record of her brief middle school obsessions, from lip glosses to cheese. When she was younger, she had created catalogues of the flora and fauna on her parents’ property, like a real naturalist. She spent most of June working on her latest catalogue. Now, though, Esther glowed with goodwill, grinding her bare feet into the grass to feel the dirt beneath, letting the bees whiz past her ears on their way to the pond and relishing the thrill that came from the little daggers passing her by, leaving her unharmed in their wake. Her friends were terrible her teachers, monsters. School was a joke, all online, unreal and indelible as a nightmare. The curtains in her room, billowing with the morning breeze the spongy hills leading down to the hives the bees themselves, round and busy as May became June.

Those were the days when she was in love with everything. Amelia GrayĮsther was sixteen the summer that all the bees in her father’s hives died. But experiments aside, the protagonist’s earnest attention to the world around her is what kept my attention and stuck in my memory-that, and an ending which would absolutely meet the qualifications for Esther’s carnal taxonomy. I love a story which doubles as a bit of a science experiment, backing up claims with evidence as this does, while moving deftly through a good story. “Birds x Bees” is a sharply rendered story of a teenager’s speculative curiosity at sixteen, the most painful of ages, not dissimilar to a hundred bee stings down one’s forearm. Ages 12 and up.Katharine Duckett’s “Birds x Bees” is one of three winners of the 2022 CRAFT Amelia Gray 2K Contest, guest judged by Amelia Gray. It is a thrilling coming-of-age story that will undoubtedly please fans of Nobody’s Princess and garner new fans of the original timeless tales.

Battles ensue, a murderous princess is encountered, her life is threatened, and only through a treacherous escape can she return to her home.Įsther Friesner’s tale is as imaginative as the legends that inspire it. Disguised as a boy, Helen joins the crew as a weapons bearer, and her adventure begins. Nobody’s Prize, the sequel to Nobody’s Princess, tells the tale of young Princess Helen of Sparta, who refuses to be left behind by her older brothers who head off to join Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece. Readers may be familiar with the legends and myths of Jason and the Golden Fleece, Medea, Hercules, and Helen of Troy, but Esther Friesner weaves these characters together in a teen novel that lifts them off those dusty pages and into a re-imagined tale of adventure and intrigue.

Nobody's Prize by Esther M. Friesner