Lilbeebye Stings Bully – Reviewed by:  Beth Adams, Hollywood Book Reviews

Lilbeebye is a young girl with a super power.  She can change into her super-hero outfit and shoot honey into the hearts of people causing emotions of meanness and hostility to change into those of sweetness and love.

In author Theresa Shields’ Lilbeebye Stings Bully, readers are brought into a scenario where Lilbeebye and her friend Sally are playing on the swings, when a group of bullies come over and push them off the swings – claiming it is their swings, and Sally, falls to the ground and begins to cry.  Lilbeebye steps away from the swings and goes into a room to change into her super-hero outfit so nobody will recognize who she really is.  She emerges with the force and strength to overcome adversity, and with her powerful honey stinger, shoots the bullies in the chest with honey, causing their hearts to shift into emotions of love and kindness.  The episode ends with hugs and apologies, and Lilbeebye changes back to her street clothes to rejoin the group.The book continues to another episode dealing with some girls being teased over cell-phone messages and photos.  In all of these cases, Lilbeebye comes to the rescue of the victims and saves the day.

Changing bitterness, hostility and hate into feelings of kindness, joy, and love is a very good and powerful super-human force which all youngsters wish to have.  Doing something in fighting back, rather than simply playing the victim, and overcoming the adversity of bulling is shown quite well with the combination of story-telling text and colorful cartoonish illustrations.  Lilbeebye Stings Bully has a theme of good vs. evil which is clearly shown, but digs deeper into having faith in God and being a wholesome church-going person to keep one’s strength piqued.

Bullying is a problem nowadays, as it certainly has been for a long time, but teaching children to fight-back and showing readers they have to power to confront this evil attitude head-on and how it can change things; which brings out the inner strength of the good upbringing in faith-based families.  As for the honey, what sweeter weapon of love and kindness than being stung with this sweet nectar, albeit a bit sticky.

The author touches upon many aspects in this creative, educational and enjoyable super-hero adventure story.  Themes besides bullying and shown with a black girl superhero and the racial differences becoming inclusive rather than dividing, plus the foundation of faith being the real weapon against evil in our lives.

As youngsters page this book on their own, or being read it by their parents, they will gain inner-strength, overcome the fear of bullying, and build their foundations in God, all while being entertained by this colorful cartoonish character who wears a super-hero outfit complete with a mask to hide her identity.  This is a book for all children to read and to own.