Little Bee

My first summer read was Little Bee by Chris Cleave. It is not something that I would normally pick up and read, usually because I engross myself in YA literature for the purposes of making recommendations of great novels to my
middle and high school students in the fall, but I have been eyeing this one for a couple years now and I figured there is no time like the present to read it.

With that said, the reading of Little Bee took me a couple days to finish. I narrowed my descriptive summary down to four words: terrifying, heartbreaking, heroic and promising. Chris Cleaves story is an amazing novel of a young girl's struggle to survive the world we live in. Of course, she does not begin her live in the United Kingdom, but her journey ends up here, due to terrible circumstances in her own country.

Besides Little Bees heroing fight for survival, the aspect of the story that made me reflect the most is the fact that the human race will stop at nothing to get to natural resources for our own benefit and waste. We, as consumers, are selfish and wasteful and this is just one story (fictional, though based on fact)that drives this realization home in such a well-written and poignant way that it has stayed with me since I finished the notes portion of the book.

Little Bee is a #1 New York Times Bestseller, and The New York Times Book Review wrote "IMMENSELY READABLE AND MOVING...AN AFFECTING STORY OF HUMAN TRIUMPH" and I most certainly agree.

The description on the back reads: This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again-the story starts there...