The Treasure of Tel Maresha

"'My name is Becca Goldstein, and this is the story of how I became famous,' reads the opening line of this chapter book. Children will be instantly drawn into the story of two girls. Becca is an American Jew visiting Israel with her family, reluctantly participating in an archaeological dig at Tel Maresha. Rebeka is a Jewish girl living in the same spot 2,200 years previously. The book alternates chapters from each girl's point of view as the reader sees how the location has changed and remained the same. Item, such as pottery shards, that Becca's family finds are being used by Rebeka's family. And, the origins of a special artifact that Becca finds are explained in Rebeka's chapters. Both girls are concerned about their families needing to move and have similar resolutions to their problems. At the end of the book, Becca realizes, 'It wasn't only modern girls whose parents need to move someplace new,' while Rebeka thinks, 'Perhaps her parents were right. Wonders awaited them.' The full-color cover illustration will attract young readers, and the black and white drawings in each chapter will add to the enjoyment and make it easier to understand how an underground cave could be used for storage. The book concludes with an author's note that goes into more detail about the historical events depicted and the actual Tel Maresha dig.

The book will appeal especially to independent readers in third through fourth grade and to younger children as a read-aloud. This title is a recommended purchase for homes, libraries, and schools." Association of Jewish Libraries

"Reluc­tant to vis­it what she thinks will be a bor­ing archae­o­log­i­cal site dur­ing her fam­i­ly trip to Israel, Bec­ca only wish­es to be back home hav­ing a fun sum­mer with her best friend. Nev­er­the­less, here she is at Beit Guvrin, a site where she vis­its an ancient cave and finds an arti­fact, a pre­cious gold ear­ring that even she has to admit is fas­ci­nat­ing. Her find has the unex­pect­ed ben­e­fit of bring­ing her to the atten­tion of a com­mu­ni­ty of archae­ol­o­gists, who laud her for her sig­nif­i­cant discovery.

Alter­nat­ing chap­ters fol­low a Jew­ish fam­i­ly who lived in the area close to two thou­sand years ago, when the pow­er­ful Greeks were a force in the Land of Israel. Rebe­ka and her fam­i­ly were plan­ning on mov­ing to Athens so that her father could take advan­tage of trad­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and so that the chil­dren of the fam­i­ly could receive a supe­ri­or edu­ca­tion. In their hur­ry to pack their belong­ings and be ready to leave with the car­a­van, they lost a pair of fine­ly wrought gold earrings.

The ear­ring Bec­ca finds con­nects her with Rebe­ka of long ago and teach­es her more about the his­to­ry of her peo­ple in their joint home­land. Mod­ern Bec­ca from the Unit­ed States and ancient Rebe­ka from Israel share more than just their name; they share a his­to­ry, a peo­ple, and a land.

Illus­tra­tions show dif­fer­ences between then and now, link­ing the past and the present in an engag­ing way. Through both text and image, chil­dren will learn that some trou­bles — but also some joys — are uni­ver­sal and unchang­ing; chil­dren have been grap­pling with some of the same issues for untold generations.

An author’s note goes into fur­ther detail about Tel Mare­sha at the Beit Guvrin Nation­al Park in Israel and the Dig for a Day pro­gram run by the site. The author reminds us that the keys to Jew­ish his­to­ry — in this case, the Mac­cabee rebel­lion, which led to the hol­i­day of Hanukkah — are found in archae­o­log­i­cal exca­va­tions and explo­rations. She also tells us that the sto­ry is based on a true inci­dent: a gold ear­ring was unearthed by a ten-year-old girl at Tel Mare­sha and is cur­rent­ly part of the col­lec­tion at the Israel Museum."—Jewish Book Council