When Lily Met Dave

In The Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens is the main protagonist. Lily’s life is far from perfect; a young girl living in South Carolina with her abusive father. Her father owned a large peach farm and the only thing he cared about was his dog. She has little self-esteem and her only comfort is imagining what her life would have been like had her mother lived. Instead she has been forced to grow up with the tormenting knowledge that she accidently shot and killed her own mother when she was a baby. Her only friend was her stand-in mother, Rosaleen, who helped to care for her.  In A Child Called It, Dave has similar problems with self-esteem and an abusive parent. Both finally revolt against their abusive past. Lily runs away after breaking Rosaleen out of the hospital/jail. She decides to go the Tiburon, South Carolina after finding a picture of her mother’s that was taken there. She hopes to find friends and more about her mother’s past. Dave finally got himself removed from his mother and into the foster care system. Lily made it to Tiburon to find that the picture came from the three Boatwright sisters, August, June, and May. The sister took in Lily and Rosaleen and care for them. The Boatwright sisters run a beekeeping business. While they are staying there Lily learns that her mother stayed there right before she died. August and Lily finally talk about her mother and lily life finally begin to turn around for the better. Both of these characters had to overcome their abusive childhoods to become what they were meant to be.