Lily Owens lives with her father, T-Ray, on his peach farm, and Lily has grown up believing that she killed her mother, since that's what T-Ray has always told her. She only has vague memories of her mother hurriedly packing a bag and telling Lily to be quick to get ready to leave, then her father entering the room, some shouting, a gun, and a loud blast as it goes off. Her stand-in mother, Rosaleen, the black woman who comes into clean house for T-Ray, decides one day to walk into town and register to vote. This goes over about as well as you think it would in 1960s South Carolina. Rosaleen and Lily both end up in jail, and when T-Ray bails out only Lily, she fears both for her own safety and Rosaleen's, breaks her friend/surrogate momma out of the clink, and they both hit the road south. With only an old sticker of a black virgin Mary to guide her, Lily heads to a town she's convinced her mother knew in search of answers. What she finds is a new if unconventional family, one that helps her work through more questions than she knew she had.

On the surface I loved the story and the characters. And the writing is gorgeous. But the more I think about it, the more issues I see. Lily's age doesn't seem well defined, for one; we learn at some point that she's 14, but she really doesn't seem that old in her thoughts and actions, which makes her relationship with Zach - a high school boy - seem off. But more importantly, the black sisters with whom Lily and Rosaleen stay (and Rosaleen herself), although it seems obvious that we're meant to see them as Strong Black Women in a time when SBW were not safe in the South, come off more as a modern version of the Noble Savage, glorified caricatures of the Mammy type, old, wise for their hardships, but still safely quirky and living at the margins of Real Society. So in the end I both loved and kinda loathed the novel. It has lovely moments, but ultimately the main character is a white girl benefiting from nurturing of black women while not really understanding them or their lives. ( )

A beautifully written story that engages us emotionally and spiritually. Ms. Kidd is a great storyteller using descriptive elements and emotions that touch us deeply while inspiring possibility. I plan on reading her other books hoping they're nearly as good or better than "Bees". ( )

CW: Suicide ( )

Carolina del Sur, 1964. Lilly, una chica blanca de catorce años, vive en una granja con su padre y con Rosaleen, un ama de llaves negra que hace las veces de la madre que perdió. El ama es una mujer de gran corazón, aunque también de carácter, que no tiene miedo de reivindicar sus derechos. La niña es un personaje dulce, pero a la vez lleno de determinación, cuyos sueños se ven ensombrecidos por un pasado que la abruma y por la difícil relación que mantiene con su padre.

The tears just keep coming.... But my heart is happy. I couldn't put this one down. Monk is now my favourite author. She makes me feel and sense everything..... It's just that simple. My soul feels every bit of pain, confusion, love and happiness. My hands feel the sticky honey, the red wooden heart and the whale pin. I can see the wailing wall, the moon, the pink house, the black Madonna. I can smell the soil, the river, the honey house. I can hear the bees humming, the cello music and the Daughters of Mary. I can taste the honey cakes, sweet tea and bananas. This story is amazing, sad and beautiful. Read it.... You'll see what I mean. ( )