# The Secret Life of Bees

**Author:** Sue Monk Kidd
**Lexile:** 840L
**Grade range:** Grades 9–11
**Age range:** 14–18
**First published:** 2002
**Page count:** 302
**Genre:** Literary Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780142001745`
**ISBN-10:** `014200174X`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/the-secret-life-of-bees
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

In 1964 South Carolina, fourteen-year-old Lily Owens flees an abusive father and the guilt of her mother's death, taking refuge with three Black beekeeping sisters who keep a Black Madonna. Amid the violence of the civil-rights era, Lily finds mothering, community, and the truth about her past. A common grades 9-11 text for its coming-of-age, motherhood, and racial-justice themes.

## Themes

- family
- race
- coming of age
- motherhood
- forgiveness

## Content notes

- racism
- death of a parent
- violence

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