The Treasure of Tel Maresha

This title is a recommended purchase for homes, libraries, and schools. Association of Jewish Libraries

Readers aged 8-10 will be swept up by the parallel stories of two girls with surprisingly similar problems even though they are separated by 2,000 years.

When Becca Goldstein's parents drag her to an archeological site in Israel as part of a family vacation, she did not expect to to become famous in the archeology community. Nor did she expect to discover a connection to another girl her age who had lived on the same site 2,000 years earlier. Told in alternating chapters, this is the story of two similar girls in two very different ages and their remarkably similar struggles to reckon with the changes in their lives.

Becca didn't want to go on this stupid family vacation to Israel. The flight was too long, the weather was too hot, and Becca missed her friends back home. Being dragged to an archeological site in Tel Maresha was not the way Becca wanted to spend her time. Well, until they journeyed to the underground caves, carved by the ancient residents of Tel Maresha to avoid the heat.

Rebeka's father was returning from selling their wool in the markets of Jerusalem, and he brought with him a mysterious Greek guest. The man, Jason, told the tale of how Rebeka's father saved him from a mob. With tensions rising and violence brewing around Tel Maresha, Jason urges the family to move. Rebeka doesn't want to go; Athens is far, and she'll miss her friend and the home she's always lived in. But in the family's hurry to depart, what Rebeka leaves behind might be more than just her home, and might stay there for a long time.