Book Report Materials...Two.

Book Title: The Secret Life of Bees.

Author: Sue Monk Kidd.

Questions	Event 1	Event 2	Event 3
What happened?	Lily and Rosaleen meet the Boatwright’s.	August offers Lily and Rosaleen to stay with her.	Mays Story.
When did it happen and where?	-August Boatwright’s house.	-The Boatwright’s House.	-The Boatwright’s House.
Who was involved? What did they say? What did they do?	-Lily, Rosaleen, August, May and June Boatwright was involved. -Lily and Rosaleen waited until August went inside then crossed the highway and opened the gate in the picket fence. “She’s the woman who makes the Black Madonna Honey.” -Lily states that she was unable to take her eyes off of her, “The Mistress of bees, the portal into my mothers life.” -As they stood on the porch, they could hear June bugs flicker around and music notes from inside that sounded like a violin. -Lily knocked on the door. While Rosaleen muttered, “ Give me strength… Baby Jesus… Lord our feeble minds. -The music that they were hearing from inside the house had stopped, and the door opened. -The woman who answered the door was wearing red; her hair cut short and a curlicue swim cap pulled tight over her scalp. -Lily asked if she was August Boatwright and the woman said no, she was June Boatwright. She said August is her sister and asked if they came to see her. Lily nodded as another woman appeared. -The other woman that appeared had bare feet. She wore a green and white sleeveless gingham dress and short braids that stuck straight out all over her head. Her name was May Boatwright. Lily mentioned that May Boatwright wasn’t an “all together normal person.” As May asked if August is expecting them, Rosaleen jumped in and said, “No, see Lily ha this picture-“, Lily interrupted her and said “I saw a honey jar back at the store, and the man said...” As Lily cut off Rosaleen, Lily was cut off by May. May said, “Oh, you’ve come for honey. Well why didn’t you say so? Come on in the front parlor. I’ll get August.” -Lily mentions that she and Rosaleen need to get their stories straight. -As Lily stepped into the house, she felt a trembling along her skin. “The body knows things a long time before the mind catches up to them. I was wondering what my body knew that I didn’t.”	-Lily, August, June, Rosaleen. -August entered the room that Lily and Rosaleen were in and said, “ Who’ve we got here?” -Lily tells August that they have left home to find Lily’s aunt. -Lily asks August if she has any work for them, considering that they aren’t in any hurry to get to Virginia. -“Rosaleen was our housekeeper, she doesn’t have any family but me, so we decided to go up to Virginia to find my aunt. Except we don’t have any money, so if you have any work for us to do while were here, maybe we could earn a little before heading on. We aren’t really in a hurry to get to Virginia.” August replies, “I’m from Virginia myself.” -August tells Rosaleen tat she can help May in the house, and Lily can help her and Zach with the bees. -Zach is Augusts’ main helper. -August can’t pay Lily. But Lily and Rosaleen will have food to eat and a room to sleep in. -“I don’t exactly know her whole name, my father just called her Aunt Bernie; I never met her.” “Well, what were you planning to do, child, go door to door in Virginia?” “No, ma’am, just Richmond.” “I see.” August replied. -Lily says that the thing was, she did. She saw right through it.	- Lily, August and May. -August tells Lily about what happened to May, and why she is the way she is. -August tells Lily that the wall was created by May. She tells Lily that May is special. “May takes in things differently than the rest of us do. See, Lily when you and I hear about some misery out there, it might make us feel bad for a while, but it doesn’t wreck our whole world. Its like we have a built- in protection around our hearts that keeps the pain from overwhelming us. But May- she doesn’t have that. Everything just comes into her- all the suffering out there- and she feels as if it’s happening to her. She cant tell the difference” -Lily starts thinking… “Did this mean if I told May about T-Ray’s mounds of grits, his dozens of small cruelties, about my killing of mother- that hearing it, she would feel everything I did? I wanted to know what happened when two people felt it. Would it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone’s joy seemed to double it?” -When April and May were eleven they walked to the market to buy ice cream, the man at the market told them that they had to eat the ice cream outside. April wanted to stay inside to look sat books, but the man took her arm and pulled her to the door, and her ice cream dropped to the ground. -The Boatwright’s father told April that nothing is fair in this world. -“She got deflated about life, I suppose you say. It opened her eyes to things she might not have noticed, being so young. She started having stretches when she didn’t want to go to school or do anything. By the time she was thirteen, she was having terrible depressions, and of course the whole time, whatever she was feeling, May was feeling. And hen when Aril was fifteen, she took our fathers shotgun and killed herself.” -When April died, something in May died, too. -May was never normal after April’s death. -The Boatwright’s tried for years to get help for May, but no doctors had any idea what to do with her except put her away. -June and August came up with the wailing wall. (A place for May to mourn). -May continues to write her prayers and place them in the wall.
Why is this an important event?	This is where Lily and Rosaleen meet the Boatwright’s; I think it is a significant part of the story because I feel like since they met the Boatwright’s that something is going to happen. Maybe they do know Lily’s mother, maybe they do have a connection to lily somehow. It gives you a sense that they are there and met each other for a reason.	Lily and Rosaleen are stuck. Lily has already lied to August multiple times and Rosaleen has not said a word. What will this lead to? They have finally escaped T-Ray and now they’ve just gotten themselves in a mess of lies. I feel that their lies will surely catch on, which will lead to many future events throughout the book.	This section of the story really makes you connect with May and how she’s feeling. It helps you understand that she was normal, and the news of her sister’s death was really hard for her to deal with emotionally and mentally.

 

I think that Lily will finally open up to August and tell her the truth about why she’s really there. And possibly ask August if she knows anything about her mother.  

“I hadn’t been out to the hives before, so to start off she gave me a lesson in what she called “bee yard etiquette.” She reminded me that the world was one big bee yard, and the same rules worked fine in both places: Don’t be afraid, as no life- loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don’t be an idiot; wear long sleeves and long pants. Don’t swat. Don’t even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates, while whistling melts a bee’s temper. Act like you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.” Page 92.

It indicates that one should not be afraid of life and things in life that can harm you. But don’t be gullible, keep your guard up and be aware of your surroundings. If you’re angry, don’t act upon that anger with negativity. And above all love.

WORD	PART OF SPEECH	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE FOUND IN THE BOOK	PAGE
Consternation	Noun	Feelings of anxiety or dismal at something unexpected.	“He thought the tone of shock in my voice was really consternation.”	64
Venetian	Adjective	Of or relating to Venice or its people.	“In the corner of my eye I caught a slight movement at the window, a venetian blind slit open, then closed.”	68
Organdy	Noun	A fine translucent cotton or silk fabric that is usually stiffened and is used for women’s clothing.	“The curtains were organdy, not your average white organdy but silver-gray, so the air came through with a slightly smoky shimmer.”	70
Iridescent	Adjective	Showing luminous colors that seem to change when seen from different angles.	“A barge of mist floated along the water, and dragonflies, iridescent blue ones, darted back and forth like they were stitching up the air.”	57
Slew	Verb	Turn or slide violently or uncontrollably in a particular direction.	“I knocked on the door while she uttered a slew of words under her breath.”	68
Afghans	Noun	A blanket knitted or crocheted in strips or squares; sometimes used as a shawl.	“Somebody had gone over the entire parlor with it, a big room with fringed throw rugs, an old piano with a lace runner, and cane –bottom rocker draped with afghans.”	79
Parceled	Verb	Divide into portions and then distribute.	“She kept forty eight hives strewn through the woods around the pink house and another two hundred eighty were parceled out on various farms, in river yards and upland swamps.”	93
Strewn	Verb	Scatter or spread untidily over a surface or area.	“She kept forty eight hives strewn through the woods around the pink house and another two hundred eighty were parceled out on various farms, in river yards and upland swamps.”	93
Serenading	Verb	Entertain with a serenade.	“June’s music poured out, serenading us.”	97
Cranny	Noun	A narrow space opening.	“I pressed the paper with her name into a cranny that seemed right for her, giving her to the wailing wall.”	101