“The bees came the summer of 1964, the summer I turned 14 “according to Lilly Owens, who looks back on her life-changing year living in South Carolina. Lily’s mother died when she was four and she blames herself. T. Ray, Lily’s father, grows impatient when she sees bees in her bedroom. Racists assault Rosaleen, Lily’s black nanny. Lily and Rosaleen flee Sylvan for Tiburon, a town written on the back of her mother’s Black Madonna picture. The black bee-keeping Boatwright sisters give them refuge and teach them about bee-keeping and worshiping the Black Madonna. Sue Monk Kidd prefaces each chapter with a bee fact and compares the life cycle of bees to humans in her debut novel. She captures the resilience of the human spirit.

Reviewed by Megan M., Main Library

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