50 Fun Facts About The Secret Life of Bees

Which image on August's honey jars matches a picture Lily's mother owned in The Secret Life of Bees?

A Black Madonna looks out from every jar, and that label is how Lily tracks the sisters down. About 400 to 500 Black Madonnas have been recorded across Europe.

Which punishment does T. Ray give Lily after catching her in the orchard in The Secret Life of Bees?

Kneeling on grits is T. Ray's signature cruelty, yet it was pure invention. Kidd had never heard of such a punishment before it came to her while drafting the scene.

What color is the house where the beekeeping Boatwright sisters live in The Secret Life of Bees?

Pink paint makes the sisters' home easy to find. On the 2008 film set, it took three tries to mix a shade Kidd likened to Pepto-Bismol.

What does May Boatwright build of stones, tucking slips of paper inside, in The Secret Life of Bees?

A wailing wall gives May a place to set down each sorrow she cannot bear. Readers have since built copies in schools, a hospital and therapists' offices.

Where do bees swarm around Lily Owens each night in the opening pages of The Secret Life of Bees?

In her bedroom, bees squeeze through cracks and circle Lily in the dark. Kidd took the image from life: a hive lived inside her family's Georgia home for eighteen years.

Which music star turned actress plays August Boatwright in the 2008 film of The Secret Life of Bees?

Queen Latifah plays the eldest sister, who runs the family honey business. She came to the part with an Oscar nomination for the musical Chicago behind her.

Which young actress plays Lily Owens in the 2008 film of The Secret Life of Bees?

Dakota Fanning shot the summer scenes in freezing February weather. She held ice in her mouth between lines so her breath would not show on camera.

How did the mother of Lily Owens die when Lily was four years old in The Secret Life of Bees?

A gunshot killed her during a fight with T. Ray, when little Lily picked up the dropped weapon and it went off. The police inquiry ruled it a tragic accident.

What was the name of May Boatwright's twin sister, who died at fifteen, in The Secret Life of Bees?

April died young after feeling the world's cruelty too keenly, a loss May never got over. With June and August, the women are known as the Calendar Sisters.

Which instrument does June Boatwright play at the bedsides of the dying in The Secret Life of Bees?

The cello is June's comfort for the dying, and she also plays it at the sisters' Sunday services. By day she teaches history and English at the local high school.

In which state is The Secret Life of Bees set, mostly in the fictional town of Tiburon?

South Carolina is where Kidd did her bee research too: she toured an apiary there and sketched the honey-house equipment to learn how honey is made.

Which landmark law does President Johnson sign in the opening chapter of The Secret Life of Bees?

The Civil Rights Act became law on July 2, 1964, barring discrimination in public places. The tension it stirs up shadows every town Lily passes through.

Why is Rosaleen walking into town when three white men confront her in The Secret Life of Bees?

To register to vote, Rosaleen sets out on Lily's birthday but ends the day under arrest. She finally gets her name on the rolls in Tiburon at the end of the summer.

What does Rosaleen pour on three white men's shoes, leading to her arrest, in The Secret Life of Bees?

Snuff juice from her bottle goes over their shoes after the men taunt her on the road. Kidd borrowed the snuff habit from the woman who helped raise her.

What do the Boatwrights name the ship's figurehead they revere as Mary in The Secret Life of Bees?

Our Lady of Chains takes her name from a legend the sisters retell: each time a slave master bound the statue, she escaped and returned to the enslaved workers who prayed to her.

What does Zach Taylor, August's teenage helper, hope to become in The Secret Life of Bees?

A lawyer is Zach's goal even though Lily has never heard of an African American one. A Tiburon attorney, Clayton Forrest, lends him law books and backs the dream.

What does Lily Owens dream of becoming, urged on by her English teacher, in The Secret Life of Bees?

A writer is what Lily means to be, and she fills a notebook with stories starring Rosaleen, August and Zach. Kidd says she wanted the same thing as a girl.

Which singer, heard on the soundtrack, plays June Boatwright in the 2008 film of The Secret Life of Bees?

Alicia Keys plays the proud middle sister and gave the film her song Doncha Know (Sky Is Blue). No soundtrack album was ever released.

Which actress plays Rosaleen in the 2008 film of The Secret Life of Bees?

Jennifer Hudson took the part two years after her debut film made her an Oscar winner. On screen, the sisters welcome Rosaleen into the family with a new name, July.

Which crop does T. Ray Owens grow on the land Lily runs away from in The Secret Life of Bees?

Peaches are T. Ray's living, and Rosaleen picked them in his orchard before he hired her to keep house.

Lily Owens turns fourteen on which US holiday, when Rosaleen is arrested, in The Secret Life of Bees?

Independence Day is Lily's birthday, and she marks it by breaking free herself: within hours she has left T. Ray and taken Rosaleen with her.

How do Lily and Rosaleen travel most of the way to Tiburon after fleeing in The Secret Life of Bees?

By hitchhiking, the pair make it to Tiburon, but only after spending their first night of freedom asleep beside a creek.

Where in Tiburon does Lily first spot the honey jars that lead her to August in The Secret Life of Bees?

A general store is where Lily and Rosaleen stop for lunch, and the man behind the counter tells her who makes the honey and how to find the house.

What lie does Lily Owens tell the Boatwright sisters on arrival in The Secret Life of Bees?

She is an orphan bound for an aunt in Virginia, Lily claims. August sees through the story but asks no questions and waits for the truth.

Which women's prayer group gathers in the Boatwright parlor on Sundays in The Secret Life of Bees?

The Daughters of Mary turn up in flamboyant hats, and their circle includes one man, Otis Hill. Book clubs have since held parties in copycat hats.

Where do the Boatwright sisters find May's body, a stone resting on her chest, in The Secret Life of Bees?

May is found in a river, lying in two feet of water where she had walked at dusk with a flashlight. Her note says she is tired of carrying the world's weight.

What news, hidden from May Boatwright by her sisters, leads to her death in The Secret Life of Bees?

Zach has been jailed after a friend's thrown bottle cut a white man and nobody would name the culprit. His mother lets the secret slip when she rings the house.

Why does June Boatwright keep refusing to marry her suitor Neil in The Secret Life of Bees?

She was once jilted at the altar, so June turns Neil down again and again. She finally says yes after May's farewell note urges her sisters to live.

How did August Boatwright, back in Virginia, first come to know Lily's mother in The Secret Life of Bees?

As her nanny, August helped raise Lily's mother in Virginia, long before she inherited the bee business. That is why the unhappy wife later fled to Tiburon for shelter.

How does T. Ray finally trace the runaway Lily Owens to Tiburon in The Secret Life of Bees?

A collect call that Lily makes from a Tiburon law office, hoping her father has missed her, gives her away. He only yells, so she hangs up.

Lily Owens grows up outside which town before running away in The Secret Life of Bees?

Sylvan is modeled on Sylvester, Georgia, the small town where Kidd grew up, and the two names share their first four letters.

Which name does a raging T. Ray shout at Lily, mistaking her for her mother, in The Secret Life of Bees?

Deborah is the wife T. Ray used to adore, and for a moment he sees her in Lily. The girl snaps him out of it by saying Daddy, a word she never uses for him.

Who taught the Boatwright sisters beekeeping during summers on the farm in The Secret Life of Bees?

Their grandmother, known as Big Mama, also handed down the Mary statue and the devotion that surrounds it.

What does August tell Lily to send the bees so they will not sting in The Secret Life of Bees?

Love comes first in the bee etiquette August teaches her apprentice. Kidd got through her own research visit to an apiary without a single sting.

Which part of the Mary statue does each worshipper touch during services in The Secret Life of Bees?

Her heart, painted on the chest of the old figurehead, is touched by each member in turn. Lily faints the first time she reaches for it, just as the music stops.

What does August Boatwright do to the hives after her sister May dies in The Secret Life of Bees?

August covers them in crepe with help from Lily and Zach. By old belief, bees that stay in a draped hive are a sign the dead person will live again.

Which television newsman does Lily see as the fatherly opposite of T. Ray in The Secret Life of Bees?

Walter Cronkite reads the news on the sisters' television, and his reports of that summer's racial violence send May into fits of grief.

Which Hollywood star produced the 2008 film of The Secret Life of Bees through his company Overbrook?

Will Smith produced the drama, and his wife was its executive producer. It took about $40 million on an $11 million budget.

Which English actor plays Lily's harsh father, T. Ray, in the 2008 film of The Secret Life of Bees?

Paul Bettany plays the embittered widower who, in the film's final scene, admits that his wife really had come back for Lily.

Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees, earned a Texas Christian University degree in which field?

Nursing was Kidd's first career: she worked in pediatrics and surgery and taught the subject before she turned to prose in her thirties.

Which Stephen Foster song does May Boatwright hum whenever she grows upset in The Secret Life of Bees?

Oh! Susanna is the household alarm bell: when the humming starts, her sisters know tears are coming and send May outdoors to calm down.

Which jewelry worn by Lily, originally his gift to her mother, stuns T. Ray in The Secret Life of Bees?

A whale pin is what T. Ray gave his wife years earlier, and his shock at seeing it shows Lily how much he had cared for her.

What keepsake does Zach give Lily when he vows they will be together in The Secret Life of Bees?

His dog tag is Zach's pledge after he kisses her: he promises to come back for Lily when he has made something of himself.

What does May Boatwright use to lure cockroaches outdoors unharmed in The Secret Life of Bees?

Marshmallows and graham crackers make a trail to the door, and the sight jolts Lily: her own mother used the same trick, the first hint that she had stayed there.

Where does Lily Owens hide the few keepsakes of her mother from T. Ray in The Secret Life of Bees?

In a buried tin box in the orchard, Lily keeps a photograph, a pair of gloves and a small wooden picture with a town's name penned on the back.

What does Lily Owens like to drop into a bottle of Coca-Cola as a treat in The Secret Life of Bees?

Peanuts in a bottle of cola are Lily's favorite dessert, and book clubs have recreated the snack alongside honey cakes from the story.

Which second novel, about a woman drawn to a monk, did Sue Monk Kidd publish after The Secret Life of Bees?

The Mermaid Chair followed in 2005 and was filmed for Lifetime the next year with Kim Basinger in the lead.

Like Jane Eyre and David Copperfield, The Secret Life of Bees belongs to which literary genre?

Bildungsroman is the German name for a coming-of-age story, and Lily's summer fits it: she leaves home, finds teachers and learns to stand up to her father.

In the 2008 film of The Secret Life of Bees, where are Lily and Zach sitting together when he is seized?

A movie theater is where the pair ignore segregation rules by sharing seats in the section set aside for African Americans. He is later returned alive.

Which film star is rumored to be visiting Tiburon with an African American date in The Secret Life of Bees?

Jack Palance never appears, but the rumor alone is enough to put angry men on the streets of Tiburon.