Title: Lilbeebye Stings Bully
Author: Theresa Shields
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-7960-9113-7
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Pages: 32
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
Bullying is an important situation for virtually all children to be prepared to react to when playing with peers. These lessons in life can be learned basically in two ways: one way, of course, is by experiencing the situation first-hand; and secondly by witnessing the situation happening to other people. In Theresa Shields’ book Lilbeebye Stings Bully, readers will see a super-heroin go into action to thwart the hostile situation of playground bulling, and in doing so spread heart-warming love with honey.
The illustrated sequence begins with Lilbeebye and her friend Sally playing on the swings when a group of bullying-boys approach and push Sally off her swing, causing her to cry. Just like a super-hero episode, Lilbeebye goes off out of sight of the group to protect her secret identity to change into her Super Honey Girl outfit, and returns with the onomatopoeia of “Slam, Bzzzz, Pfft, Zzzzt and Splat,” resulting in honey being squirted onto the torsos of the bullies, changing their attitudes into those of smiles and hugs.
This first episode in the book is lavishly illustrated with the action-packed sequences of images corresponding to the storyline, yet the book continues with another incident of bullying with only the text version used to tell the tale. In the second part of the book, slightly older teen agers are quarreling and arguing over bullying text messages being sent among their group. Lilbeebye, seeing what is going on once again goes into action, as she transforms into Super Honey Girl and curtails the attitudes of the teens. They all later join the church named “We Shall Overcome Bully Some Day,” and become the best of friends.
These fanciful stories are ideal for youngsters to learn from. Being prepared and realizing bullying encounters are all too common nowadays, will help them avoid any permanent emotional scaring which may lead to depression and, as the author mentioned, even suicidal thoughts. The strength of Super Honey Girl shows readers to stand up to the situations which will redoubtably occur in everyone’s life at some point, and in doing so can change the hostile actions into feelings of respect, friendship and love.
These are important lessons for all children to learn, and Lilbeebye Stings Bully is a valuable book when used as a tool for educating kids about bullying while entertaining them with the bright yellow and black Super Honey Girl character.
