What is a "phobia"?

To doctors and other adults, it’s an irrational fear. Something we try to “manage.”

To a child, it’s a source of the heebie-jeebies, a bogey monster that won’t go away. Something that haunts night and day.

Apiphobia – the fear of bees – is something shared by adults and children. Sometimes the fear is legitimate, because of the danger of allergic reaction. But when it’s not, is there some way a parent can help a child get rid of the monster?

In Let Me Bee, Vanita Oelschlager shows us how. It is a delightful story – one in which a fear of bees initially overwhelms our hero, keeping him inside and away from the natural world. But then he talks to a bee and learns a little bit about how dangerous he himself looks, when seen through a bee’s eyes.

Let Me Bee becomes a humorous guide to overcoming phobias and shooing the monster away. In the end, boy and bee learn how to live with each other – fear-free.