This book is strong in
character and story.
Summary:
Set in the early 1960s against a background of racial violence and
unrest, 14-year-old Lily Owen is neglected by her father and isolated on their
Georgia peach farm. She imagines a blissful infancy when she was loved and
nurtured by a mother whom she barely remembers, but she knows that somehow she
was involved in the accident that took her life. All Lily has left of her mother
is a strange image of a Black Madonna, with the words "Tiburon, South Carolina"
scrawled on the back. When Lily's beloved nanny Rosaleen insults a group of
angry white men on her way to register to vote and has to skip town, Lily takes
the opportunity to go with her, fleeing to the only place she can think
of -- Tiburon, South Carolina -- determined to find out more about her dead mother.
How she ends up an apprentice bee-keeper with the three black ladies she calls
the "Calendar Sisters" (May, June and August) makes a wonderful read.
I would recommend this book!
Why?
Beautifully written, uplifting and worth the time. All the characters are
incredibly vivid -- I want to visit with them! The search for a mother (and the
need to mother oneself) are the themes in this well-written coming-of-age story.
Additional comments:
This author was known to me only by sappy first-person inspirational
stories in Guideposts magazine, and I was expecting the worst. Instead, the sweetness was tempered with spice. (Her deft handling of an interracial romance showed sensitivity and a broader world view than I imagined.)
Employee Initials: SB
Review Date: January 2003
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