The Secret Life of Bees

by Sue Monk Kidd

(Fiction, 2002)

After her "stand-in mother," a bold black woman named Rosaleen, insults the three biggest racists in town, Lily Owens joins Rosaleen on a journey to Tiburon, South Carolina, where they are taken in by three black, bee-keeping sisters. Winner of a 2003 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults award; a 2002 School Library Journal Best Adult Books for High School Students award; the 2004 paperback “Book Sense Book of the Year” award-winner for adult fiction (given annually to books considered "hidden treasures" by the American Booksellers Association).  301 p.* Also available to download as an audio book.