Bee and her Ghostie Aunts

 Beholding Bee (Juvenile Fiction)

Bee is a resilient, lovable, and incredibly capable twelve-year-old. She is also treated cruelly due to a beauty mark on her face. Bee has lived in the back of a truck her whole life, spends her days helping run the hot dog stand at the carnival she belongs to, and has never attended school. 

After losing her parents when she’s four, Pauline, a carnival worker, steps in to take care of her. Pauline, who is just twelve years older than Bee, does her best to parent Bee, but Ellis, the owner of the carnival they work for, does everything he can to make their lives miserable. When Pauline is sent to work at another circus, Bee does a super courageous thing and runs away. She takes her dog, Peabody, and pig, Cordelia with her and they find refuge with two eccentric ladies who may or may not be the ghosts of her ancestors. They settle into the house her mom grew up in, a house that was abandoned by her grandfather several years back. Slowly, with the help of a few new friends, her mysterious “aunts,” and her pets, Bee begins to heal and address her trauma. 

I really love Bee’s character. There are several bittersweet moments where it’s clear that Bee knows how to take care of others and also her own physical needs, but she simply cannot give herself the love of family she so desperately deserves and needs. One sweet example of this is when she arrives at her aunts' house on the first day and she gives water to her animals first. There are many details like this sprinkled throughout the story. She is constantly encouraging her aunts to eat and even learns how to make chicken soup to help them grow stronger. But Bee is still very much a kid who is dealing with a lot of trauma. Her aunts encourage her to go to school, but the experience is absolutely horrible thanks to one child whose own trauma may or may not be the reason she’s a bully. Bee endured all kinds of shocking treatment from carnival attendees (which is why she's insecure about her beauty mark), but this bully at school really gets to her. While thinking up revenge for one of the bully’s attacks, Bee stumbles upon something that actually brings her a little peace. 

I was completely immersed in Bee’s journey. I thought the characters were wonderful. Her new friends are supportive but also in need of Bee’s support. Her aunts are too magnificent for words. They offer support but encourage self-reliance. Though filled with many ups and downs, the story is engrossing with short chapters that read like poetry. And while all the loose ends didn’t get neatly tied up by the end of the story, I left the book feeling like I could rest easy and know that Bee was going to be just fine.