Lily Owens is a 14 year old girl who runs away from her abusive father because he treats her very badly, and because he lies to her about her past. Lily’s mother died when she was just 3 years old, and Lily hardly remembers anything about her mom, but what she does remember, is that Lily was the cause of her mothers death, but it was an accident.
Lily found a few of her mothers’ belongings, and she keeps them with her all the time, since they are the last things she’ll ever have from her mom. Lily lives her whole life blaming herself for the death of her mother, her mom was the only thing Lily loved, and she had been the one who took her away. The day Lily runs away from her dad is the day she goes to Tiburon, South Carolina. Lily found “Tiburon, SC” written on one of her mothers’ old photographs, and she has hopes that she’ll find out about her mother’s past by going to Tiburon.
When she gets to the town, she finds a picture of a black Mary pasted on jars of honey, it’s the same picture her mother had “Tiburon, SC” written on. Eventually, the jar of honey leads Lily to a house of 3 colored women; the Boatwright sisters. The Boatwright’s accept Lily as part of their family, allowing her to live with them, and they all adapt a relationship with each other. It was as though they were family, a perfect family.
While Lily stays with the Boatwright’s, she is taught how to work with bees and how to make honey. August Boatwright, the oldest sister, is in charge of the honey-making, and she teaches Lily all there is to know about bees, and about love. It was like August had adopted Lily, and Lily adopted August, too.Throughout the story, Lily is taught all about family, hope, and love.
She becomes very close with the Boatwright’s, closer than anyone had ever expected. When things become bad and Lily’s past haunts her, she opens up to August and tells her why she had come to Tiburon, she told August all about her mother, Deborah, and what had happened with Lily’s father, and how Lily had accidently killed her mom. She explained how it was the biggest mistake she ever made. August had accepted Lily the way she was, even if she had been the reason her mother was taken away, August loved her anyway.Toward the end of the book, Lily’s father shows up at the Boatwright house, telling Lily that she needs to come back home. Lily refuses, and she explains how much she loves the Boatwright’s.
Her dad then realizes that Lily is much better off with August, so he allows her to stay.Lily’s experience all started with a jar of honey, and it turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to her. Even though her mother had died when she was just a child, Lily had been adopted by the Boatwright’s, and Lily had all the mothers she ever needed. Lily had all these people that loved her, and she didn’t need anything else.Lily had changed so much while she lived with the Boatwright’s in Tiburon, Lily had become a new person, a person who found happiness. Lily’s past might have been very sad, and very difficult, but her future was bright.
I love this novel, because it shows how powerful, and how important, love and family truly is. It amazes me that all of these things great things happened to Lily, all because of a bee. Even something as small as a bee can spread love, and that’s exactly what happened in this story. Love was spread everywhere.
