The Secret Life of Bees ("Laughing with Lily") by Ashley Wedlake

Lily is a fourteen-year-old girl who lives with her abusive father that owns a peach orchard in Sylvan, South Carolina. Her mother, Deborah, died when Lily was four years old and her father, whom she calls T. Ray, makes her think that she is the one that shot and killed her mother. Even with such loss and cruelty she keeps a positive outlook on life and uses humor to describe people and events. Lily believes that God metaphorically encourages her to leave home by saying, “Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open” (41). After she runs away she rescues their maid and her only friend, Rosaleen, from the hospital. Together they walk for days and finally decide to hitchhike their way to Tiburon, South Carolina, to hopefully learn about her mother. They end up finding refuge in a hot pink house where three colored women live—August, June and May Boatwright, whom Lily humorously calls the “the calendar sisters” (?). Humor is a vital part of being human. In The New York Times bestseller,...