The Secret Life of Bees

The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings

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 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 that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 01/28/2003
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.5lbs
Size: 7.92h x 5.24w x 0.61d
ISBN: 9780142001745
Audience: Young Adult

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.7
Point Value: 15
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 68836 / Secret Life of Bees


Award: Book Sense Book of the Year Award - Winner


Review Citation(s):
Entertainment Weekly 02/14/2003 pg. 75
Booksense '76 Mar/Apr 2003 03/01/2003 pg. 1

About the Author

Sue Monk Kidd's first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, spent more than one hundred weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has sold more than six million copies in the United States, and was turned into an award-winning major motion picture, and has been translated into thirty-six languages. Her second novel, The Mermaid Chair, was a number-one New York Times bestseller and adapted into a television movie. Her third novel, The Invention of Wings, was a number-one New York Times bestseller and a selection of Oprah's Book Club 2.0. She is also the author of several acclaimed memoirs, including the New York Times bestseller Traveling with Pomegranates, written with her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor. She lives in Florida.