Bee Summers

The spring she is eleven years old, Melissa Singer's mother walks out of the house and never returns. That summer, her father, a migratory beekeeper, takes her along with him as he delivers his hives. The trip and the people she meets change her life. Over the years that follow, Melissa tries to unlock the mystery of her mother's disappearance and struggles to come to terms with her loss.

Melanie Dugan is a long-time library assistant and book club enthusiast. She is the author of Dead Beautiful, ("the writing is gorgeous," A Soul Unsung) Sometime Daughter ("Stunning debut," Kingston Whig-Standard) and Revising Romance ("heartwarming, amusing and … downright sexy," Midwest Book Review). Her short stories have been shortlisted for several awards, including the CBC Literary Award. She lives in Kingston, Ontario.

Merilyn Simonds, author of Breakfast at the Exit Cafe, A New Leaf: Growing with My Garden, and The Convict Lover, writes, "In Bee Summers, Melanie Dugan sensitively recreates the imposed innocence of childhood, tracking the precocious, resilient Lissy through abandonment and rejection into clear-eyed maturity. This is a coming-of-age novel that buzzes with intelligence and a deep understanding of human nature."