The Secret Life of Bees (Pgs. 1-102)

Summary: The Secret life of Bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd, a New York Times best-seller is about a little girl that tries to find a piece of herself. The first section that I read seemed to pave the way for the rest of the book. In the first 6 chapters (the first section), a little girl named Lily Owens lives with her father and their African-American house mother, after the death of her biological mother. Lily Owens is introduced living in a rough environment with her father, he is constantly neglecting her needs as a growing girl, and she feels like she has nobody to turn to, except her African-American house mother. Lily constantly feels like she is blamed for her mother's death because her father insists that it was her fault. With nowhere left to turn after being placed in a difficult predicament involving racism, Lily finds herself escaping her hometown with her house mother, traveling to Tiburon, South Carolina. The reason for the specific escape to Tiburon, South Carolina instead of any other city is because on the back of an old picture her mother possessed (from the select few that were left), Tiburon was written.
Quote: "My first and only memory of my mother was the day she died." (Kidd 5).
Reaction: Growing up without a mother is difficult for a fourteen year old girl, who was only five when her mother passed away. Along with not having a mother to be her guide in life, Lily's father wants nothing to do with her. They [Lily and her father] are practically strangers in the same house. Occasionally they will speak to each other, but their conversations do not happen on a regular basis. As Lily tells her life story, the point of view is being told from innocent eye. Here is this fourteen year old that doesn't understand too much about racism, even though she has grown up around it all her life. What this first section reminded me of was To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, where a little girl is going through life with such a naive mindset, guiding readers as her life picks up the pace.