Summary of Akeelah and the Bee

Akeelah and the Bee centers around a one-year period of a young girl’s life and the confidence she gains while studying to advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Akeelah is an awkward, intelligent, eleven year old African American girl. She lives with her widowed mother, her older sister, her niece and one of her two older brothers, who has fallen in with the wrong crowd. Her eldest brother is an airman in the Air Force.

Javier

The movie begins with Akeelah’s teacher asking her to compete in the Crenshaw Middle spelling bee. Akeelah has no interest in competing and representing her middle school because she dislikes the condition of the school and the administration’s apathy in upgrading the school. Secondly, she is also afraid that she will be labeled as a “braniac”. To avoid school detention for repeated truancy, Akeelah reluctantly agrees to participate in her school’s spelling bee and wins easily. This is also her first interaction with Dr. Larabee a professor at UCLA who had been spelling bee champion when he was younger. Although she has won her school spelling bee he gives her a series of hard words to spell, which she does correctly impressing the administrators of the bee only messing up on the word pulchritude. Dr. Larabee decides to coach Akeelah, but quickly dismisses her after she comes to his house being rude and talking "ghetto",  he tells her he doesn't have time for insolent little girls. Akeelah decides to study for the district spelling bee on her own, memorizing many words directly from the dictionary. Akeelah competes in the district spelling bee and places tenth only after another student is disqualified for cheating. At the district bee she meets a boy named Javier who is from the affluent neighborhood of Woodlawn Hills. He invites her to the spelling club he is a part of, and she then secretly meets him at his school to prepare for a the Regional Spelling Bee. This is where she interacts with Dylan for the first time, he is her biggest rival and has placed second in the Scripps National Spelling Bee two years in a row. Dylan is rude to Akeelah and tells her she doesn't belong in the regional bee.

Dr. Larabee

Akeelah realizes that winning the spelling bee will be difficult and ask Dr. Larabee to become her coach again, he agrees after making Akeelah agree that there will be no nonsense. After coming home late from Javier's school Akeelah’s mother forbids her to participate in the regional spelling bee. Despite her mother’s initial disapproval and the possible label that winning the spelling bee might get her, she continues to study and train hard with Dr. Larabee. In the middle of the regional bee her mother pulls her off stage angry Akeelah went with out her permission. With the persuasion of Dr. Welch, her principal and Dr. Larabee Akeelah's mother lets her finish the bee. Akeelah places third in the bee  gaining the support of her mother and the community.

Dylan

After winning a spot to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C., Dr. Larabee challenges her to learn five thousand new words and tells her he can no longer coach her.  Ironically, as Akeelah’s success becomes an inspiration to many in her community, she becomes a little discouraged as expectations and outside pressures increase. Akeelah’s community rallies behind her, and offer to coach and help her prepare. With the help of her family and community, Akeelah learns to overcome adversity and embrace her special gift. After many months of preparation and sacrifice, Akeelah ultimately ties for      first place with Dylan in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and is named a co-champion. Her winning word was pulchritude, derived from the Latin word pulcher, which means beautiful.