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THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES

by Sue Monk Kidd ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 14, 2002

Despite some dark moments, more honey than vinegar.

A wonderfully written debut that rather scants its subject of loss and discovery—a young girl searching for the truth about her dead mother—in favor of a feminist fable celebrating the company of women and the ties between that mothers and daughters.

The prose is lapidary, the characters diverse, and the story unusual as it crosses the color line, details worship of a black Virgin Mary, and extensively describes the lives and keeping of bees. But despite these accomplishments, the fabulist elements (bees as harbingers of death, a statue with healing powers) seem more whimsical than credible and ultimately detract from the story itself. Lily Owens, just about to turn 14, narrates this tale set in South Carolina during July 1964. Since her mother died when she was four, Lily has been raised by African-American Rosaleen and by her sadistic father T. Ray Owens, a peach farmer who keeps reminding Lily that she killed her mother. When Rosaleen is arrested and beaten for trying to vote, Lily springs her from the hospital, and they head to the town of Tiburon because its name is on the back of a cross that belonged to Lily’s mother. On the front is a picture of a black Madonna who can also be seen on the labels of jars of honey produced in Tiburon by local beekeeper Augusta Boatwright. Certain the secret to her mother’s past lies in Tiburon, Lily persuades Augusta to take them in. As the days pass she helps with the bees; meets handsome young African-American Zach; becomes convinced her mother knew Augusta; and is introduced to the worship of Our Lady of Chains, a wooden statue of Mary that since slavery has had special powers. By summer’s end, Lily knows a great deal of bee lore and also finds the right moment to learn what really happened to her mother.

Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2002

ISBN: 0-670-89460-5

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2001

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A LITTLE LIFE

by Hanya Yanagihara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2015

The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.

Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.

Yanagihara ( The People in the Trees , 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.  

Pub Date: March 10, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8

Page Count: 720

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015

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by Hanya Yanagihara

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PERSPECTIVES

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen ) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

Pub Date: June 15, 1951

ISBN: 0316769177

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951

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by J.D. Salinger

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Book Review: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Author: Sue Monk Kidd

Publisher: Penguin Books

Genre: Historical Fiction, Bildungsroman

First Publication: 2001

Language:  English

Major Characters: Lily Owens, Rosaleen, August Boatwright, June Boatwright, May Boatwright, T. Ray Owens

Setting Place: Sylvan, South Carolina, 1964

Theme: Racism and America in the 1960s, Mothers and Daughters, Religion, Guilt, and Forgiveness

Narrator: First Person from Lily Owens’ Point of View

Book Summary: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily’s fierce-hearted black “stand-in mother,” Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free.

They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina–a town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna.

This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

The book, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, is also available on Audible. It’s narrated by Jenna Lamia.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd was a funny and sweet story mixed with the serious topic of the Civil Rights Agreement of the 1960s in USA. The protagonist, Lily, is such a lovable character because she’s a child and perceives the world as the 14-year-old she is, but at the same time she goes through so many brutal things that your heart bleeds for her.

Fourteen year old, Lily Owens has only ever wanted to be loved by her parents. With a less than loving father, it seems the only hope she will have is to cling to the memory of her deceased mother in hopes that she had loved Lily before her death. When Lily’s father T. Ray, tells her that her mother left her behind when she was younger, that is all the excuse she needs to run away from him and his terrible and hurtful lies.

“Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn’t know a thing about life.”

Set in the 1960s, during the Civil Rights Movement, Rosaleen, the housekeeper, is now allowed to vote. Unfortunately on her way to town, she finds herself in jail. Lily cannot leave her behind to be beaten, or worse killed, by the men that put her in there, so she devises a plan to break her out and bring her along on her new adventure to find out more about her mother.

When they reach Tiburon, South Carolina, they meet the Boatwright family. The three African-American sisters, August, June, and May all live in a pink house and keep bees. They sell the honey around town and pray to Our Lady of Chains. Needless to say, the Boatwright sisters are unique in every way and as they welcome Lily and Rosaleen into their lives, Lily begins to feel as if she never wants to leave.

“If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you.”

She knew from a picture of the Black Madonna that she found in her mother’s belongings that matched the same picture on the honey jars that August sold around town, that she was in the exact spot she needed to be to find out more about her mother. But Lily was keeping secrets. She had lied to everyone that was quickly becoming important to her about why she was there. Only the truth would produce the raw facts about everything she has always wondered about.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd was a heart-warming story about people learning the meaning of love and how to love. I really enjoyed the strong, independent, female characters and watching them learn and grow the more I read. The story has a nice flow and was enjoyable throughout, and as a bonus, I did learn some interesting facts about bees!

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The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd centers on Lily's search for a connection to her mother who died in a tragic accident when she was a toddler. Taking place in South Carolina in the 1960s, The Secret Life of Bees explores race, love and the idea of home in turbulent times. It is a lovingly written drama that keeps the pages turning. We highly recommend The Secret Life of Bees , especially to women and women's book clubs .

• Loveable, well-written characters
• A sweet, Southern voice
• A compelling story full of mystery, longing, and love
• Easy to read and not too long
• Not entirely realistic (which isn't necessarily a con for everyone)

Description

• A motherless child searching for the truth about her mother and herself
• A Black woman and white girl united in the South in the 1960s
• Black Madonna Honey: the women who make it, the bees that produce it, and the spiritual figure

The Secret Life of Bees Reviewed

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd is the story of Lily, a teenager on a peach farm in South Carolina whose mother died when she was young and whose father is abusive. In practice, Lily is raised by the Black housekeeper, Rosaleen. When Rosaleen gets in a fight with some white men while she is going into town to register to vote , Lily and Rosaleen decide to take off together. They end up in a unique community that is the perfect place for Lily to look for her mother and learn to love herself.

The descriptions, characters, and plot mix together to make The Secret Life of Bees a honey-sweet reading treat. Southern summer nights come alive in this novel, and you can almost taste the Coke with peanuts floating in it. The characters are well developed and interesting. There is enough suspense to keep The Secret Life of Bees from becoming too introspective as well.

Race issues run through the novel. Lily's relationships with Black women and men and the town's willingness to ignore them are not entirely realistic; however, The Secret Life of Bees does a good job of conveying the underlying tension and inequalities that existed in the South in the 1960s.

The Secret Life of Bees also explores feminine spirituality. While this was not the strongest thread in the book, it worked well enough with the characters and events not to be a serious weakness.

We recommend The Secret Life of Bees . It is a wonderful debut novel that makes a quick and thoughtful weekend read.

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Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, the secret life of bees.

• About the Book

Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964,  The Secret Life of Bees  tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love--a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

• Publication Date: January 28, 2003
• Genres: Historical Fiction
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
• ISBN-10: 0142001740
• ISBN-13: 9780142001745

Big Book Review

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The Secret Life Of Bees Book Review

With The Secret Life of Bees , author Sue Monk Kidd weaves a poignant and heartwarming tale that probes into the complexities of family, race, and female empowerment in the 1960s American South. Set against the backdrop of societal turmoil, this New York Times bestseller follows the journey of 14-year-old Lily Owens as she escapes her abusive father in search of the truth about her mother. Through themes of loss, love, and resilience, Kidd explores the power of female relationships and the healing balm of forgiveness. Dive into this captivating world where bees play a significant role in unraveling life’s mysteries and discover why this novel continues to mesmerize readers worldwide.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways:

• Empowering Themes: The Secret Life of Bees explores powerful themes such as female empowerment, racial discrimination, forgiveness, and healing.
• Rich Character Development: The book features well-developed characters who undergo personal growth and transformation throughout the story.
• Heartwarming Story: Readers are drawn into a heartwarming tale of love, family, and the importance of finding one’s place in the world.

Author’s Backstory

Who is sue monk kidd.

Little is known about the author’s early life. However, Sue Monk Kidd was born on August 12, 1948, in Sylvester, Georgia. She graduated from Texas Christian University with a bachelor’s degree in nursing and worked as a registered nurse for many years before turning to writing.

Inspiration Behind the Story

Any avid reader of “The Secret Life of Bees” may wonder what inspired Sue Monk Kidd to pen such a compelling tale. An exploration of the author’s personal experiences and interests reveals a rich tapestry of inspiration behind this beloved novel.

To fully grasp the depth of “The Secret Life of Bees,” one must appreciate Sue Monk Kidd’s own journey of self-discovery and spirituality. Her profound connection to feminism and civil rights is woven into the fabric of the story, creating a narrative that resonates with readers on multiple levels.

Dive into the Plot

Setting the scene.

On a peach farm in South Carolina in the 1960s, the story unfolds in a small town where racial tensions are high. The lush landscapes and the hot, sticky Southern summer create the perfect backdrop for the tale of a young girl searching for answers about her mother’s past.

Key Characters and Their Journeys

Any reader entering into “The Secret Life of Bees” will quickly become attached to Lily Owens, a girl haunted by the memory of her mother’s death and on a quest for belonging and love. Rosaleen, Lily’s caregiver, is a symbol of strength and resilience, navigating the challenges of being a Black woman in the racially charged South. The Boatwright sisters – August, June, and May – offer Lily refuge and wisdom on her journey of self-discovery and healing.

The Secret Life Of Bees Book Review: Dive Into Your Next Adventure

The relationships that form between these characters and the obstacles they face together make for a gripping narrative that explores themes of family, forgiveness, and the power of female bonds .

Themes and Symbols

The significance of sisterhood.

Once again, one of the central themes in The Secret Life of Bees is the importance of sisterhood. To the protagonist, Lily, the bond she forms with the beekeeping sisters represents a newfound sense of family and belonging. Through their support and love, Lily learns to heal from past trauma and discover her own strength.

Unveiling the Hidden Meanings

Meanings in The Secret Life of Bees are intricately woven into the story, inviting readers to research deeper into its layers. Unveiling the hidden meanings behind the beekeeping practices, the Black Madonna, and the power of female relationships reveals a tapestry of resilience, empowerment, and spiritual redemption.

Unveiling the layers of symbolism in the novel uncovers a rich tapestry of themes, including the importance of finding inner strength, the transformative power of forgiveness, and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity. The intricate symbols and allegories in the story add depth and nuance to its narrative, inviting readers to reflect on their own lives and relationships.

My Take on the Book

The highs and buzzes.

Not every book has the power to transport you to another time and place quite like “The Secret Life of Bees.” Set in the South during the Civil Rights era, the novel immerses you in the world of young Lily Owens as she initiates on a journey of self-discovery and healing. The vivid descriptions of the honey farm and the beekeeping rituals add a magical touch to the story, making it a truly enchanting read.

The Stings and Letdowns

Stings can be found in some parts of the narrative where the pacing feels a bit slow, and certain plot points may seem predictable. While the mother-daughter relationships are beautifully explored, some characters lack depth, leaving you craving more emotional connection. However, despite these minor letdowns, the overarching themes of love, forgiveness, and empowerment shine through, making it a worthwhile read.

Plus , the novel offers valuable insights into the complexities of human relationships and the importance of forgiveness. The strong female characters and their resilience in the face of adversity serve as a powerful reminder of the strength that lies within each of us.

Readers’ Honeycomb

Public perception.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd has captivated readers around the world with its heartwarming story of love, forgiveness, and the power of female bonds. Public opinion on the book is overwhelmingly positive, with many praising Kidd’s beautiful prose and memorable characters. Readers often describe feeling deeply moved by the story and inspired by its themes of resilience and hope.

Critic Reviews

The Secret Life of Bees has received praise from critics for its poignant storytelling and exploration of complex issues such as racism and family dynamics. One notable review from The New York Times called the book “a moving coming-of-age tale that leaves a lasting impact on readers.” Critics have also commended Kidd for her vivid descriptions and powerful emotional depth.

Public interest in the book has only grown over the years, with many readers recommending it to friends and family. The Secret Life of Bees continues to resonate with audiences of all ages, affirming its status as a modern classic in the literary world.

Now that we’ve explored into “The Secret Life of Bees” in this review, it’s evident that this book offers a beautiful and touching narrative that explores themes of family, love, forgiveness, and the importance of female relationships. Sue Monk Kidd has crafted a compelling story that captures the hearts of readers and leaves a lasting impact. The characters are well-developed and the historical backdrop adds depth to the storyline. Overall, “The Secret Life of Bees” is a must-read for those who enjoy powerful storytelling and a message of hope and resilience.

Q: What is ‘The Secret Life Of Bees’ about?

A: ‘The Secret Life Of Bees’ is a novel written by Sue Monk Kidd that follows the story of a young girl named Lily Owens who runs away from her abusive father in search of the truth about her mother. She finds refuge with three beekeeping sisters who teach her about love, forgiveness, and the power of female community.

Q: What makes ‘The Secret Life Of Bees’ a must-read?

A: ‘The Secret Life Of Bees’ explores themes of race, family, and female empowerment in a beautifully written and emotionally captivating story. The characters are richly developed, the setting is vividly described, and the overall message of the novel is both heartwarming and inspiring.

Q: Is ‘The Secret Life Of Bees’ suitable for all readers?

A: While ‘The Secret Life Of Bees’ is generally well-received by readers of all ages, it does contain some heavy themes such as racism, abuse, and loss. Parents may want to consider the maturity level of younger readers before recommending this book to them. However, the novel’s message of hope and resilience can resonate with readers of various backgrounds.

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The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd

Ten years ago Sue Monk Kidd was a traditionally grounded Christian writer. But like her engaging narrator Lily Owens, Kidd is on a spiritual journey, heralded by her 1996 nonfiction work The Dance of the Dissident Daughter and confirmed in this captivating first novel about love and forgiveness. Guided by bees and a group of women devoted to a black Madonna, 14-year-old Lily Owens embarks upon a spiritual quest that carries her through the shadow of racism and her own spiritual suffering and brings her to adulthood.

The context for her quest is South Carolina in 1964, a transformative year for civil rights. America had survived the fury and sorrow of 1963: the murder of Medgar Evers, the Birmingham church bombing and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The next year brought the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the murder of three civil rights workers. Against this backdrop and often in conversation with these events, Lily and Rosaleen, a black woman who acts as her stand-in mother, flee the dubious charms of Sylvan, South Carolina.

Lily is running away from her father, T-Ray, who seems to care more for his dog than his daughter. She is an articulate, socially awkward teenager whose memory of her mother comes from her fourth year, when her mother was killed in a domestic dispute. Lily suspects she may be partially responsible for her mother's death, and her guilty hunger for parental love is the emotional axis of the novel.

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Book Review

The secret life of bees.

• Sue Monk Kidd
• Coming-of-Age , Historical

• Viking, a member of the Penguin Group
• New York Times Bestseller, 2008; Book Sense Book of the Year, 2004

Year Published

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

In 1964, 14-year-old Lily Owens lives with her abusive father, T. Ray, on a peach farm just outside Sylvan, South Carolina. Lily’s mother, Deborah, is dead — accidentally shot by Lily 10 years ago. Ostracized by her classmates and wracked by guilt, Lily’s closest relationship is with Rosaleen, the quick-tempered but loving African-American maid who raised her.

After watching President Johnson sign the Civil Rights Act into law, Rosaleen decides to go into town to register vote. Lily goes with her. A group of white men mock and aggressively attempt to intimidate Rosaleen, who responds by pouring the contents of her snuff container on their shoes. The men react violently, pinning her to the ground and beating her. When the police arrive, Rosaleen is arrested.

After her arrest, Rosaleen is further brutalized under the supervision of a racist police officer. Lily visits Rosaleen in the hospital and helps her escape. Lily decides to head to the nearby town of Tiburon because of a photo that depicts Mary, the mother of Jesus, as black. The photo, which Lily found with her mother’s possessions, has the town’s name written on the back.

Once in Tiburon, they learn that the photo is a logo for a local beekeeping operation owned by the Boatwright sisters, August, June and May. August allows Lily and Rosaleen to stay in their honey house in return for assistance with daily chores.

Lily, the only white person at the beekeeping operation, works processing honey with fellow employee and aspiring lawyer Zach Lincoln. She participates in the Boatwrights’ religious rituals that center around a statue of Mary that they keep in the parlor. Shielded from the outside world and feeling safe and accepted for the first time in her life, Lily embraces her new work as an apprentice beekeeper.

Lily and Zach become friends, and he encourages her to pursue her writing. She eventually wins over June, who was hostile to her at first, and learns from May that her mother had stayed there before her. She begins to process her feelings about T. Ray and tries to work up the courage to tell August the truth about herself.

Lily’s peaceful dream world is shattered when Zach is arrested for protecting a friend who bloodied a man’s nose. May, a childlike soul who is deeply distressed by other people’s pain, is overcome by the news and commits suicide. Zach is eventually released, and after the mourning period for May has passed, Lily finally tells August her real name. She is shocked to learn that August knew who she was all along.

August, who used to work as a housekeeper, helped raise Deborah and stayed in touch with her after she grew up. August explains to Lily that shortly before her mother’s death, Deborah was depressed and in the middle of a nervous breakdown. She temporarily abandoned Lily to T. Ray’s care while she sought solace and recovery with the Boatwright sisters.

She was killed when she returned to retrieve Lily and seek a divorce from T. Ray. At first, Lily is angry, but eventually comes to terms with the less-than-perfect truth about her mother. She looks to Mary as a substitute.

T. Ray finally tracks down Lily at the Boatwrights’ place, physically assaults her and demands that she return home with him. But August and a number of other women known as the Daughters of Mary because of their participation in the Boatwrights’ religious services, stand up for her. T. Ray reluctantly allows Lily to stay.

Before he leaves, Lily asks if it’s true that she is responsible for her mother’s death. T. Ray confirms that yes, although it was accidental, Lily is the one who pulled the trigger. Lily continues her beekeeper apprenticeship. She and Zach attend high school together. Lily reflects that she, the formerly motherless girl, now has more mothers than anyone.

Christian Beliefs

The Boatwright sisters are Catholic, and every night they say personal prayers. Lily says that in her Baptist church, Mary was only mentioned at Christmas. Instead of going to church, the Boatwright sisters lead a service with a group of women (and one man) called the Daughters of Mary. The Daughters of Mary hold a communion service using honey cakes.

Bees are associated with spiritual rebirth. August tells Lily that the early Christians used to carve bees into the walls of the catacombs as a reminder of the promise of the resurrection.

Lily imagines meeting her mother in heaven and asking for forgiveness. She wonders whether she will go to heaven or hell. If she ever meets God, she plans to ask Him why He made such a mess of creation. Later, after hearing August talk about her mother, Lily becomes very angry with God. She wishes she could knock Him off His throne, but throws jars of honey instead.

T. Ray, despite being a regular church attender for 40 years, becomes increasingly abusive. Lily prays that God will do something about him. T. Ray and Lily attend a Baptist church. Lily’s church gives its members a plastic glove with five steps of salvation written on it so they can witness to a Catholic in case they happen to meet one.

There are a number of Baptist and some Methodist churches in Sylvan. A storekeeper won’t sell items from his store on Sunday but will sell items from his restaurant. The plagues are mentioned as being something God enjoyed sending early in His career.

August’s grandmother, also a beekeeper, said that she once heard the bees humming the Christmas story — something August doesn’t believe to be literally true but feels it happened in a figurative sense. She tells Lily that if she listens closely enough, she will hear the Christmas story inside herself.

Other Belief Systems

Bees have spiritual significance in this novel. They are compared to angels. August tells Lily about Aristaeus, a mythical beekeeper who was punished by the gods and whose story originates the belief that bees have power over death. Lily hears and has visions of swarms of bees, even before she meets the Boatwrights. She associates the sound with both life and death.

The Boatwrights hold a vigil and keep May’s body at home, partly to help themselves grieve and partly because they believe May’s spirit might not yet have returned to God. They want to help her on her way. May leaves a suicide note saying she will be happier in heaven and that it was her time to die.

May builds and takes care of a wailing wall, modeled after the one in Jerusalem, where she writes names and incidents that bring her distress on pieces of paper and stuffs them between the cracks. After May’s suicide, Lily becomes the keeper of the wall.

Lily wonders about reincarnation. She refers to Mother Nature as a creator. Rosaleen doesn’t go to church but sets up a shrine in her house where she follows a religion loosely based on nature and ancestor worship. Honey is referred to as the shampoo and ambrosia of gods and goddesses. Lily believes that a photo of her and her mother together is a sign that May has arrived in heaven and spoken with Deborah.

August says that the statue of black Mary has been taken over by the spirit of Mary and is one of the special places in the world where Mary’s spirit is concentrated. Lily asks May, after she is deceased, to tell Mary that although they know Jesus is the main figure of Christianity on earth, they are doing their best to keep the remembrance of her alive.

At communion, the Daughters of Mary feed pieces of honey cake to each other, saying that each piece is the body of Mary. They then re-enact the statue’s story by chaining black Mary in the honey house amid prayers, chants, Bible readings, dances and songs. Mary is referred to as the Queen of Heaven. As part of their ritualized reenactment, the Daughters remove the statue of Mary from the honey house, rub honey all over her body and then wash her with water.

Lily remembers seeing a picture in a book where Mary has a door in her abdomen where people can enter to be safe, and she wishes that she, too, could crawl inside her. August tells Lily that Mary lives inside her and that Lily can draw power and strength from the mother she finds inside herself. Lily believes she is feeling the Assumption inside of her and never gets tired of looking at the statue of black Mary.

August’s mother believed that Mary lived on the moon. August’s mother tells the statue that she should have had a girl (instead of Jesus). Brother Gerald believes that all Catholics are going to hell.

Authority Roles

T. Ray is an abusive father. In addition to hitting, kicking and slapping Lily, he mocks her for reading books. Despite Lily’s high-test scores, he does not support her dream of getting a post-secondary education. He takes away Lily’s food and feeds it to his dog.

When he falsely assumes that Lily has been with a boy, he punishes her by making her kneel on grits until they bruise her legs. He refuses to purchase any gifts she has asked for and doesn’t know her favorite color. He once loved Lily’s mother, but the couple only married because Deborah was pregnant with Lily. Lily wonders if he will ever love her.

Rosaleen is a gruff substitute for a mother, but cares deeply about Lily. Lily wishes that Rosaleen could adopt her, but in the South, this is impossible because Lily is white and Rosaleen is black.

Lily’s teacher, Mrs. Henry, inspires Lily to dream of becoming a professor or a writer.

Brother Gerald, the minister at Lily’s church, claims to love black people as long as they stay in their own place. Lily tries to talk him out of pressing charges against Rosaleen for allegedly stealing two church fans.

Clayton Forrest, a white Tiburon lawyer, is supportive of Zach’s dream to become the first black lawyer and shares books and case file information with him. Later, he is instrumental in representing Zach, Lily and Rosaleen and getting the charges against them dropped.

August chooses not to marry because she doesn’t want to wait hand-and-foot on a husband. She acts as a mother figure, teacher and spiritual leader for Lily. Lily asks Mary to be her mother, and August suggests that Mary could be a stand-in mother for Deborah. Lily considers June, Rosaleen and the Daughters of Mary as mother figures and marvels that she has more mothers than anyone.

Lily’s faith in her mother’s love is shattered when August tells her that Deborah, depressed and in the middle of a nervous breakdown, left 4-year-old Lily with T. Ray for about three months while she recovered at the Boatwright sisters’ house. Deborah did come back for Lily, but was accidentally killed before she could follow through with her plans to divorce T. Ray and start a new life.

Profanity & Violence

The following profanities were used between five and 15 times each: godd–n , d–n , h— , s— , b–ch and p— . God’s or Christ’s name is taken in vain and the n-word is used a few times. Questionable word choices include the use of colored as a descriptor for black people. There is one use of the word tit .

Lily accidentally kills her mother at the age of 4. She remembers T. Ray and her mother arguing and then T. Ray becoming physically aggressive with her mother. They threaten each other with a gun, which somehow ends up on the floor. When Lily tries to protect her mother from her father’s wrath, she picks it up and remembers the noise of the gunshot but nothing else.

T. Ray is violently abusive. He makes Lily kneel on grits until her legs are bruised and threatens to kill a baby chick Rosaleen buys Lily for Easter. When Lily asks questions about her mother, T. Ray becomes violent. Then and at other times, he hits and kicks Lily, and slaps her across the face. He also beats her for reading while waiting for customers at the peach stand.

He threatens to tear Lily apart. He appears to suffer a mental breakdown when he finally finds Lily at the Boatwrights’ place, and Lily worries that if she returns home with him, he may murder her. Although he claims that Lily is the one who pulled the trigger and killed her mother, the reader is left with some doubts about the truthfulness of his statement.

A group of men viciously assault Rosaleen for pouring snuff juice on their shoes. They attack her again in jail, with the permission of a racist police officer, and injuries are so bad that she ends up in the hospital where her head is bandaged and stitched.

Lily, Rosaleen and the Boatwright sisters see news reports on TV about violent crimes being committed against blacks. May becomes very distraught by these reports, shouting, sobbing and tearing at her clothing. May commits suicide by lying down in the river and trapping herself underwater by pulling a large rock onto her torso. August and the remaining Boatwright sisters retrieve her body from the river. April, May’s twin sister, became depressed and committed suicide in her teens, after being treated differently than white children.

A group of white men stand guard outside a theater, one of them with a weapon. The man with the weapon threatens Zach and his friends, one of whom throws a coke bottle at his face, breaking his nose. As a child, Zach was bullied by a group of older boys, who hooked a necklace of live fish over his head. Too afraid to swim in water up to his neck, Zach begged them to remove the necklace. When the fish died, Zach felt guilty for not helping them stay alive longer.

Honey is mentioned as an embalming fluid and as a burial method for babies, to keep them fresh.

Sexual Content

Breasts are mentioned and described in varying levels of detail. Rosaleen left her husband because he repeatedly cheated on her. Lily feels sad that her mother wasn’t there for the milestones of puberty. Rosaleen and Lily swim naked in a creek.

Lily feels physically attracted to Zach and imagines their bodies entwined together. Lily and Zach hold hands and share a kiss. They promise one another that they will be together some day. Outside their farm, T. Ray has installed a giant peach on a pole that resembles a human rear end.

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

Lying: Lily uses menstruation as an excuse to leave several situations. She lies to Brother Gerald in an attempt to convince him to drop the charges against Rosaleen. In an effort not to be arrested or sent back to T. Ray, Lily lies to the police about her identity.

Theft: Rosaleen steals two church fans. Lily steals snuff for Rosaleen.

Tobacco: Rosaleen chews snuff.

Racism: Many people in South Carolina in the 60s hold racist beliefs and are resistant to change, even after it is legislated at the national level. Panic ensues when an attempt is made to integrate the city’s pool. When a rumor surfaces that a white movie star will be bringing a black woman to the local theater, there is unrest among the town’s white residents. Some people refuse to purchase August’s honey because of the black Madonna on the label. A police officer feels that Lily staying at a black woman’s house is beneath her and suggests that she leave as soon as possible. When Lily and Zach express their feelings for each other, Lily wonders aloud what would happen if she, like Zach, were black. Zach responds that they can’t change their skin color, but they can change the world. Lily’s church actively discourages black people from attending services, going so far as to link arms across the steps to prevent any persons of color from entering. When Lily and Rosaleen stop at the church on their way to Tiburon, the minister makes it very clear that Rosaleen isn’t welcome. He later attempts to charge Rosaleen with the theft of two church fans.

Catholic faith: The Boatwright sisters are Catholic but have mixed in a number of spiritual beliefs from mythology and nature. Every night, they say personal prayers and use a rosary. Instead of going to church, the Boatwright sisters lead a service with a group of women (and one man) called the Daughters of Mary. They sing, read the Bible, chant, dance and touch Mary’s heart. June, August and Rosaleen bake cakes for the Feast of the Assumption, which is the Catholic celebration of Mary being taken into heaven.

Black Mary statue: The Boatwright sisters keep a statue of a black Mary, fist raised, in their parlor. It is the focal point of their religious rituals and celebrations. August tells the story of how their black Mary statue (originally a ship’s figurehead) was found by a slave and became a symbol of hope, strength and freedom to their community. When the slave master, wary of anything that encouraged people to live with a raised fist, chained the statue in the barn, the statue of Mary miraculously escaped. The black Mary featured on August’s honey labels is the Black Madonna of Breznichar in Bohemia. While Lily is shocked at first to see a black depiction of Mary, August explains that black Madonnas have a long history in Europe. She feels that everyone should think of God in a way that looks like him or her. Lily is drawn to the statue and feels it has power. She faints the first time she tries to touch black Mary’s heart. Lily prays to Mary, crossing herself and touching black Mary’s heart as she tells her that she is her mother. After May disappears, August asks June to kneel before the statue and pray for May’s safety. The women repeat Hail Marys as they search for May. Parallels are drawn between Mary and the queen bee of a hive. When a swarm of bees land on Lily, she feels that they are lovingly caressing her as sisters. August temporarily drapes black cloth over the beehives as a symbol that the dead will rise again.

Movie Tie-In: Producers often use a book as a springboard for a movie idea or to earn a specific rating. Because of this, a movie may differ from the novel. To better understand how this book and the movie differ, compare this book review with Plugged In’s movie review for The Secret Life of Bees .

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15 Facts About Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees

A tale of love and loss, sisterhood and trauma, Sue Monk Kidd's 2002 novel The Secret Life of Bees has won the hearts of millions of readers around the world. But few know the full truth behind this inspirational novel.

1. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES IS A BILDUNGSROMAN.

A bildungsroman is a novel that charts the moral or psychological growth of its protagonist. It's also known as a coming-of-age story. In this case, Kidd's novel follows the journey of its narrator, a 14-year-old girl named Lily Melissa Owens. After escaping her abusive father T. Ray, Lily finds solace with the beekeeping Boatwright sisters, and confronts the terrible truth about her mother's death.

2. THE NOVEL TACKLES RACE RELATIONS IN THE 1960S.

Set in South Carolina during the civil rights movement, The Secret Life of Bees presents examples of overt racism . In one scene, a trio of white men harasses Lily's mother-figure Rosaleen Daise, who is black. At the same time, the novel challenges pernicious racial stereotypes. Before meeting the Boatwrights, Lily, who is white, assumes all black women are uneducated laborers or maids like Rosaleen. Through her time with the sisters, who are accomplished business owners, the novel's heroine recognizes her own prejudices, and grows to realize her ignorance.

3. ASPECTS OF LILY'S CHILDHOOD MIRRORED KIDD'S OWN.

Upon the novel's 10th anniversary , Kidd offered a long list of autobiographical elements that can be found within The Secret Life of Bees . "Both Lily and I were adolescents during the summer of 1964, and like Lily, I was powerfully affected by the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the racial unrest that fomented during those hot, volatile months," she wrote on her website. "I, too, had an African-American caretaker. I, too, wanted to be a writer ... Lily and I created fallout shelter models for our 7th-grade science projects and wrote papers called 'My Philosophy of Life' before either of us were old enough to have a philosophy." Kidd clarifies, however, that she did not lose her mother when she was a child and her father was "nothing like T. Ray."

4. KIDD VISITED HONEYHOUSES AND BEEHIVES WHEN SHE WAS WRITING THE NOVEL.

"Some of those scenes where Lily is experiencing that rush of feeling and emotion when the bees come swirling out of their hives, I could never have gotten that from a book," the author told BookPage. "The fear and delight of all that and the sounds of it … the way your feet stick to the floor in a honeyhouse … the senses are alive in all of that experience."

5. BEES WERE A BIG PART OF KIDD'S CHILDHOOD.

In one way, Kidd lived in a honeyhouse of her own. "When I was growing up, bees lived inside a wall of our house, an entire hive-full of them—that is to say, 50,000 or so. They lived with us, not for a summer or two, but for 18 years," Kidd wrote on her website. "The room vibrated with bee hum. At times, the whole house seemed to hum. I remember my mother cleaning up the honey that leaked from the cracks and made tiny puddles on the floor. Being a good Southern family, we normalized the situation and went on with our lives."

6. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES WAS KIDD'S FIRST NOVEL, BUT NOT HER FIRST BOOK.

Ahead of The Secret Life of Bees , the Georgia-born author wrote three books about aspects of Christianity: God's Joyful Surprise (1988), When The Heart Waits (1990), and The Dance of the Dissident Daughter (1996). It wasn’t until she was in her forties that Kidd shifted her focus to fiction, beginning with short stories. The Secret Life of Bees came out in 2002, when Kidd was 53 years old.

7. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES HAS A SPIRITUAL CONNECTION TO KIDD'S EARLIER BOOKS.

The novel includes Christian iconography, notably the Black Madonna that adorns the Boatwrights' honey jars. Its coming-of-age plot also touches on spiritual awakening. As Kidd said in the 2002 interview with BookPage, "I think of it as something deeper and more profound happening to [Lily] at the level of soul, and I wanted her to have a real transformation and a real awakening … to this other realm."

8. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES 'S MEMORABLE MARY FIGUREHEAD WAS BASED ON A REAL ONE IN A MUSEUM.

In the novel, a religious service is held before a statue called Black Mary or Our Lady of Chains, which is the figurehead of a ship that carries a great significance to the Daughters of Mary, a group of women who follow a religion invented by August Boatwright. Kidd had seen a similar figurehead while visiting a Trappist monastery in South Carolina. "The day that I discovered her," Kidd said , "I was totally captivated by … the powerful imagery of this [figurehead] Mary that was surfacing from the deep, washing up from the deep, onto the shores of consciousness, so to speak."

9. THE BOATWRIGHT SISTERS REPRESENT A CELEBRATION OF FEMALE FRIENDSHIP AND SORORITY.

On her website, Kidd tells the story of how she came up with the Boatwright sisters' characters and setting. She had woken up in the middle of the night thinking about where Rosaleen and Lily were going to end up after escaping T. Ray. She picked up a selection of photos that she had hoped would spark creativity. "My eyes wandered back and forth between pictures of three African-American women, an uproariously pink house, a cloud of bees, and a black Mary, and suddenly, it fell in one unbroken piece into my head," she wrote. "My two runaways would escape to the home of three black sisters, who live in a pink house, keep bees, and revere a black Mary. This sudden revelation may have happened in part because down deep I wanted a way to write about the strength, wisdom, and bonds of women."

10. KIDD WAS INSPIRED BY TWO CLASSICS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE.

The Secret Life of Bees won applause for its insightful look into the inner lives of its female characters. It may be no surprise that its author says reading the groundbreaking feminist novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, published in 1899, made a big impact on her. Kidd also cites Henry David Thoreau's Walden , the 1854 transcendentalist treatise on simplicity and self-reliance. When she read each book, Kidd told Scholastic, "I would say they were turning points in my life, but also I can look back and say they affected me deeply as a writer."

11. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES WAS A RUNAWAY HIT.

The novel spent more than two-and-a-half years on The New York Times bestseller list and more than 8 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide. It has also been translated into 36 languages.

12. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES ALSO EARNED CRITICAL ACCLAIM.

Many reviewers praised Kidd's beautifully rendered characters and setting. "Lily is a wonderfully petulant and self-absorbed adolescent, and Kidd deftly portrays her sense of injustice as it expands to accommodate broader social evils," The New York Times Book Review wrote . "August and her sisters, June and May, are no mere vehicles for Lily's salvation; they are individuals as fully imagined as the sweltering, kudzu-carpeted landscape that surrounds them."

In deeming the novel "buzz-worthy," People wrote , "populated with rich, believable characters and propelled by a swiftly paced plot, this debut novel is a cut above most coming-of-age tales."

The Secret Life of Bees was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction (now the Women's Prize for Fiction) in 2002, and won the American Booksellers Association's Book Sense Paperback of the Year award in 2004.

13. THE NOVEL WAS MADE INTO A STAR-STUDDED MOVIE.

Gina Prince-Bythewood, who wrote and directed Love & Basketball and other features, adapted The Secret Life Of Bees into a period drama. The cast included Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, Oscar nominees Queen Latifah and Sophie Okonedo, multiple Grammy winner Alicia Keys, and Dakota Fanning as Lily.

Kidd visited the film set in a tiny North Carolina town and marveled at how every detail of the production was just as she had imagined it. But months later, when she sat down in the movie theater to watch the film for the first time, she felt nervous. "I had no idea what I would see. I’d glibly said that handing over my novel to Hollywood had seemed like leaping out of an airplane, but sitting there waiting for the film to begin, it really did seem that way," Kidd wrote on her website. "The parachute opened, thankfully, and the whole thing floated rather nicely to earth."

The movie earned a People's Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic Movie and an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture.

14. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES HAS BEEN ADAPTED INTO A STAGE MUSICAL.

As part of Vassar College's Powerhouse Theater's summer season in 2017, the college and New York Stage and Film presented a workshop production of The Secret Life of Bees as a musical, which starred Orange is the New Black standout Uzo Aduba in the role of Rosaleen. The show featured music from Tony winner Duncan Sheik and a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage.

15. KIDD REALIZED THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES WAS BIG WHEN IT WAS FEATURED ON JEOPARDY! .

Under the category "Women Writers," the long-running quiz show offered this answer: “Sue Monk Kidd’s debut novel is about these insects.” Kidd recalled that moment on her website: "I blinked at the television. Finally, I came to life and shouted, 'What are bees?' Fortunately, the contestant did not need my help."

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Parents' guide to, the secret life of bees.

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Common Sense Media Review

1960s-set family drama tackles weighty issues.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this emotional, 1960s-set drama includes multiple scenes of a man reacting violently toward his wife and daughter. The child witnesses her father's assault on her mother (resulting in off-camera gunshots and death); as a young teen, the same child is the victim of heartless physical and…

Why Age 13+?

An abusive husband assaults his wife (repeated in flashback), forcefully slaps a

A father drinks beer in one scene, whiskey in another.

Fairly minimal mild cursing: "goddammit," "damn it to hell,"

Gentle kissing and embracing between two adults on several occasions; teens shar

Wonder Bread, Coca-Cola.

Any Positive Content?

The ugly nature of racial prejudice is depicted several times. Some white reside

Violence & Scariness

An abusive husband assaults his wife (repeated in flashback), forcefully slaps a teen, and is menacing and threatening in many scenes. Gunshots are fired, resulting in an off-camera death. Racial intimidation results in severe physical beatings of two African-American characters. A dead body is revealed in an intensely emotional scene.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Fairly minimal mild cursing: "goddammit," "damn it to hell," "bitch," "bust his ass." Multiple uses of racial epithets, including the "N" word, used to humiliate and threaten African-American characters.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Gentle kissing and embracing between two adults on several occasions; teens share one innocent kiss.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Positive messages.

The ugly nature of racial prejudice is depicted several times. Some white residents of "The South" in 1964 are shown to be inhumane and brutal, their actions based on ignorance and irrational fear. A violent, cruel husband/father ultimately pays the price for his behavior.

Parents need to know that this emotional, 1960s-set drama includes multiple scenes of a man reacting violently toward his wife and daughter. The child witnesses her father's assault on her mother (resulting in off-camera gunshots and death); as a young teen, the same child is the victim of heartless physical and mental punishment. The unexpected discovery of a beloved character's dead body is intense and may be disturbing to some young viewers. African-American characters suffer at the hands of prejudiced white Southerners in many scenes. Racial hatred is illustrated by ugly name-calling (including use of the "N" word) and two beatings. But in spite of all of the above, the filmmakers don't exploit or maximize the action. They show only as much as necessary to provide the desired impact. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (6)
• Kids say (26)

Based on 6 parent reviews

The Secret life of bees

What's the story.

Running from a cruel and ignorant father -- as well as the uncertainty and guilt surrounding the death of her mother years earlier -- 14-year-old Lily Owens ( Dakota Fanning ) rescues Rosaleen ( Jennifer Hudson ), a nanny who's become a fugitive, and sets out on a journey to find a place for herself in the world, as well as answers to questions about her mother's love. It's South Carolina in 1964: The president has just signed landmark Civil Rights legislation, and racial tensions are running high. Guided by some of Lily's mother's mementos, Lily and Rosaleen find their way to the home of the Boatwrights, a family of African-American women who run a thriving honey farm. Matriarch August Boatwright ( Queen Latifah ), takes the runaways in and, along with an assorted group of family and friends, provides them with a home, a heart, and answers.

Is It Any Good?

Director/writer Gina Prince-Bythewood is nothing if not earnest in her attempt to bring Sue Monk Kidd's heartwarming novel to the screen. The visuals in THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES pay tribute to the beauty of the South, its warm "honey" tones and thick, sweet air. The music is particularly wonderful and enriches the film's emotional core.

But it's not a fully successful dramatization because the movie's heroes are almost all saintly and perfect, speaking in timeless homilies and maxims. The villains, on the other hand, are unrelentingly bad. Only Lily has the nuance of character that makes a movie more a work of art than a lesson to be learned.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the movie's messages. More than 40 years have passed since the events in the film took place. How have racial politics changed? How haven't they? Families can also discuss what Lily was looking for when she left home. Why did she take Rosaleen with her? How did Lily's innocent acceptance of her African-American friends get them in trouble? Do the filmmakers show that Lily's father learned a lesson? Parents and teens who've read the book the movie is based on can compare and contrast the two. Which do you like better? Why?

Movie Details

• In theaters : October 16, 2008
• On DVD or streaming : February 3, 2009
• Cast : Dakota Fanning , Jennifer Hudson , Queen Latifah
• Director : Gina Prince-Bythewood
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Black directors, Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : Fox Searchlight
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 110 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : thematic material and some violence.
• Award : NAACP Image Award - NAACP Image Award Winner
• Last updated : August 10, 2024

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The Secret Life of Bees Movie/Book Comparison

First I have to say we all liked the book hands-down better than the movie. The book is beautifully written, and it brings up issues of racism, familial love and acceptance of people for who they are. It’s not tidy, and by the end you know that the characters will go on trying to make sense of the times they live in and their reaction to them as well as to personal events in their own lives. There was lots of information about bee life that tied in as a wonderful metaphor to what the characters were experiencing.

While we liked the movie, we were very aware of things they changed from the book that made it flawed for us. For one thing, the movie seemed to add the bees as an afterthought, which seems strange. There were lots of scenes with August and Lily in bee clothing, but most of the bee talk seemed more informational about keeping bees and not metaphorical. Three other major differences between the book and the movie made up the bulk of our complaints about how the movie could have been better.

In the movie Zach ends up beaten up by white men for sneaking Lily, a white girl, into the colored section of a movie theater. This placed the blame on Lily and Zach for what came next. In the book, I was worried that something like that would happen because the two were so close, and I was glad when it didn’t. We all  thought it was much better for the story for Zach to end up in jail, suspected of assaulting a white man even though he had done nothing. It showed how people tend to see faces different than their own as all looking the same, hence stripping the identity from an ethnic group. If you can get in trouble because all black people look alike to white people, then your individual actions cannot be counted on to set you apart.

Also, in the movie, Our Lady of Chains loses part of her story, and part of her significance. In the book, she is depicted as being a carved ship’s masthead that probably started out as a representation of a white woman, but through her trials and tribulations the color of her wood turned black. One of the girls mentioned she was a great symbol to show that we are all the same inside, regardless of the color of our skin, and she’s a bridge to heal racial issues. In the movie, she was depicted as being originally carved as a black woman, so the symbolism is lost.

The ending of the book was also much more satisfying than the ending of the movie, although we all got the feeling it was intended to be just the opposite. I won’t detail the endings except to say that in the book it’s not tidy, which is more like real life and more satisfying somehow. The movie wraps it all up in a nice tidy package that trivializes what’s come before. It felt trite to many of us.

Regardless of noticing things we liked or disliked about the movie and the book, we all thought it was a great discussion for our mother-daughter book club.

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The Student News Site of Hamburg Area High School

Book Review: The Secret Life of Bees

Lauren Shebby , Pinnacle Senior Editor February 19, 2020

The Secret Life of Bees does not present what the reader may initially expect from the title. The novel focuses on the life of Lily Owens, a 14-year-old white girl from Sylvan, South Carolina, who spends most of her time reading and writing, secluded from the other girls in her town. Her mother died when she was young, and Lily spends her days missing her greatly, searching for more answers about her mother’s life, while her father, who she calls T-Ray, frequently verbally abuses her and occasionally forces her to tolerate odd punishments. The only support Lily finds in her life is Rosaleen, their black maid that has taken on the role of being Lily’s maternal guardian.

Taking place during the Civil Rights Movement, it is unsurprising that Rosaleen runs into trouble with white men in the Bible Belt, leading to Lily deciding to run away from home and sneak Rosaleen out of the hospital she had been admitted to. They journey to Tiburon, South Carolina, where they meet three black sisters: June, August, and May. They find a home with them, and Lily, despite already being more accepting of other races that the rest of South Carolina, learns that these women are not so different from her, and she begins to break loose from the bias instilled in her. The book demonstrates an incredible bond between women, regardless of race, and shows the dissolving of racial tensions through understanding and love.

Sue Monk Kidd wrote the novel and published it in 2001. As someone who resides in Sylvester, Georgia, and was born in 1948, she likely has a greater understanding of the perspective of a white individual during the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to her life experiences, she also spent numerous hours with beekeepers, learning more about the lives and work of bees. In her novel, Lily’s feelings about bees are synonymous with the feelings Kidd experienced when working with bees. Kidd feels that working at a honey house and at the hives was a magical experience and was ecstatic to be able to include it in her book. Despite her excellent descriptions, Kidd insists, “Some of those scenes where Lily is experiencing that rush of feeling and emotion when the bees come swirling out of their hives, I could never have gotten that from a book.”

For more information about Sue Monk Kidd and The Secret Life of Bees, visit https://bookpage.com/interviews/8506-sue-monk-kidd-fiction#.XkLD1GhKjIU .

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Excerpt from The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Summary  |  Excerpt  |  Reading Guide  |  Reviews  |  Readalikes  |  Genres & Themes  |  Author Bio

The Secret Life of Bees

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• Readers' Rating:
• First Published:
• Jan 1, 2002, 320 pages
• Jan 2003, 320 pages
• Literary Fiction
• N & S Carolina
• 1960s & '70s
• Adult Books From Child's Perspective
• Dealing with Loss
• Adult-YA Crossover Fiction
• Female Friendships
• Strong Women
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About this Book

• Reading Guide

At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high-pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin. I watched their wings shining like bits of chrome in the dark and felt the longing build in my chest. The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down its seam. During the day I heard them tunneling through the walls of my bedroom, sounding like a radio tuned to static in the next room, and I imagined them in there turning the walls into honeycombs, with honey seeping out for me to taste. The bees came the summer of 1964, the summer I turned fourteen and my life went spinning off into a whole new orbit, and I mean whole new orbit. Looking back on it now, I want to say the bees were sent to me. I want to say they showed up like the angel Gabriel appearing to the Virgin Mary, setting events in motion I could never have guessed. I know it is presumptuous to compare my small life to hers, but I have reason to believe she wouldn't mind; I will get to that. Right now it's enough to say that despite everything that happened that summer, I remain tender toward the bees.

July 1, 1964, I lay in bed, waiting for the bees to show up, thinking of what Rosaleen had said when I told her about their nightly visitations. "Bees swarm before death," she'd said. Rosaleen had worked for us since my mother died. My daddy - who I called T. Ray because "Daddy" never fit him - had pulled her out of the peach orchard, where she'd worked as one of his pickers. She had a big round face and a body that sloped out from her neck like a pup tent, and she was so black that night seemed to seep from her skin. She lived alone in a little house tucked back in the woods, not far from us, and came every day to cook, clean, and be my stand-in mother. Rosaleen had never had a child herself, so for the last ten years I'd been her pet guinea pig. Bees swarm before death . She was full of crazy ideas that I ignored, but I lay there thinking about this one, wondering if the bees had come with my death in mind. Honestly, I wasn't that disturbed by the idea. Every one of those bees could have descended on me like a flock of angels and stung me till I died, and it wouldn't have been the worst thing to happen. People who think dying is the worst thing don't know a thing about life. My mother died when I was four years old. It was a fact of life, but if I brought it up, people would suddenly get interested in their hangnails and cuticles, or else distant places in the sky, and seem not to hear me. Once in a while, though, some caring soul would say, "Just put it out of your head, Lily. It was an accident. You didn't mean to do it." That night I lay in bed and thought about dying and going to be with my mother in paradise. I would meet her saying, "Mother, forgive. Please forgive," and she would kiss my skin till it grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame. She would tell me this for the first ten thousand years. The next ten thousand years she would fix my hair. She would brush it into such a tower of beauty, people all over heaven would drop their harps just to admire it. You can tell which girls lack mothers by the look of their hair. My hair was constantly going off in eleven wrong directions, and T. Ray, naturally, refused to buy me bristle rollers, so all year I'd have to roll it on Welch's grape juice cans, which had nearly turned me into an insomniac. I was always having to choose between decent hair and a good night's sleep. I decided I would take four or five centuries to tell her about the special misery of living with T. Ray. He had an orneryness year-round, but especially in the summer, when he worked his peach orchards daylight to dusk. Mostly I stayed out of his way. His only kindness was for Snout, his bird dog, who slept in his bed and got her stomach scratched anytime she rolled onto her wiry back. I've seen Snout pee on T. Ray's boot and it not get a rise out of him.

From The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Copyright © January 2002, Viking Press, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc., used by permission.

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