If I Can't Eat Flies, What Am I?

Tad believes he cannot be a frog since he is allergic to flies, so he sets out to find a place to belong. As this fun and lighthearted story unfolds, Tad learns some important safety and life lessons.

Alicia knows firsthand what having a severe allergy is like. Not only does she live with food allergies and intolerances herself, her son, Logan, lived with multiple, severe food allergies his entire childhood-including an anaphylactic allergy to dairy. Like any parent, Alicia hated watching Logan struggle, so she went searching for a book she could read to him that may help him feel better. Surprisingly, she couldn't find one. One day, the two were at a school-sponsored ice cream party when a well-meaning but insensitive stranger exclaimed, "Being a kid who can't eat ice cream is like being a fish out of water!" Alicia knelt down, gently cradled Logan's chin, and told him she felt that expression was wrong. A fish would die out of water, but he would survive just fine eating other delicious foods that didn't make him sick. Her son looked at her with watery eyes and said, "Yeah, but it IS like being a frog who can't eat flies. It's just wrong." With that, the idea for this book was born. Alicia hopes Tad's story will help kids with food allergies navigate through the tough feelings a little easier, help their parents start open conversations about those feelings, increase compassion and raise awareness of how hard it can be for kids to feel like they belong in a society that has food so thoroughly entangled in its culture. Alicia is a holistic health coach specializing in helping people learn to manage allergies and autoimmune challenges. She is beyond excited that her lifelong dream of becoming an author is now a reality-especially since the subject is something so personal and important to her.