Hummingbirds Book

A wonderfully compelling debut novel about the intertwining and darkly surprising relationships between the teachers and students at an all-girls prep school Spend a year at the Carmine-Casey School for Girls, an elite prep school on Manhattan's Upper East Side: the year when the intimate private school community becomes tempestuous and dangerously incestuous as the rivalries and secrets of teachers and students intersect and eventually collide.

In the world of students, popular and coquettish Dixie Doyle, with her ironic pigtails, battles to wrest attention away from the smart and disdainful Liz Warren, who spends her time writing and directing plays based on the Oresteia. In the world of teachers, the adored Leo Binhammer struggles to share his territory with Ted Hughes, the charming new English teacher who threatens to usurp Binhammer's status as the department's only male teacher and owner of the girls' hearts. When a secret is revealed between them, Binhammer grows increasingly fascinated by the man he has determined is out to get him.

As seasons change and tensions mount, the girls long for entry into the adult world, toying with their premature powers of flirtation. Meanwhile, the deceptive innocence of the adolescent world complete with plaid skirts and scented highlighters becomes a trap into which the flailing teachers fall. By the end of the year the line between maturity and youth begins to blur, and the question on the final exam is: Who are the adults and who are the children?

Publishers Weekly

The Carmine-Casey prep school girls flutter through Gaylord’s debut, but they’re not alone; their teachers are insecure flirts and cheats amid divorces and trysts. One such teacher is Leo Binhammer, whose wife, Sarah Lewis, had a brief affair two years ago with Carmine-Casey’s newest teacher, the charismatic Ted Hughes. When Binhammer realizes the connection, he keeps it to himself, and before long, Ted, a reckless romantic, charms Binhammer into an unusual friendship. Meanwhile, student Dixie Doyle and her peers lounge outside the school in their pleated skirts, emanating Lolita-like “accidental sexuality.” Binhammer, who is unapologetic about his attraction to the students, tries to connect with Liz Warren, the playwright in his class, before Ted charms her. Similarly competitive, Liz and Dixie vie for attention from the few adult men around the school, and the complicated web of loyalties, attraction, competition and camaraderie provides much tension as things play out—but not in an expected way. While the narration takes some getting used to—there are many personalities and points-of-view at play—Gaylord’s tale of overeducated men and the teenage students who exhibit the finesse and understanding their teachers lack hits all the right notes. (Oct.)