Why Was the Book Lee the Flea Written?

"All a child needs is one grown-up who believes in them." (Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach)
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People keep asking me why the children's book Lee the Flea is so important to me.

I'll share a very personal story that will explain it in a few sentences... I hope you'll understand!

So, after I recovered from a terminal illness, I decided to leave a keepsake for my children and for other children — one that would make them, and their parents, believe that they are capable of achieving their dreams! And dreams are meant to come true.

I decided to leave it in the form of a story! And since my daughter was 7 and my son was 3... a children's story fit best.
Lee the Flea in the story is actually me!

And Trampoline — is actually Sami and other good people who were there along the way!

And the story behind the story is...

When I was in high school, I kept getting expelled. It was a process that built up over many years... I became a worse student day by day, and the less people believed in me, the "worse" a student I became.

The vice principal couldn't stand me — honestly, I couldn't stand him either — and he kept throwing me out of high school. Even my brothers joked that my mom came to school more often than I did...

After I started in the computer track (a 15-unit major) and made their lives miserable, with an attention disorder they didn't know how to handle, one day they officially told me that at the end of 10th grade — because I was a disruptive kid — I would not continue at the school. After a story I won't detail here, I moved to a vocational school, and I really did sink low — the lowest I could imagine academically.

A few years later, I met the person who went on to change my life...

One day I came to a private high school intending to complete my matriculation, and I planned to register for 3-unit math... At that time there was a principal named Sami, a military veteran.

While I was talking to the secretary, he walked in and asked her and me, "Which matriculation exams did you come to register for?" I told him 3-unit math — and here comes perhaps the most important sentence, the one that changed my belief...

Rabbi Carlebach said, "Every child needs one grown-up who believes in them" — and Sami was the first who believed in me!

Sami is actually Trampoline (the ant) in the story.

He said to me, in these exact words: "Lior, I have a feeling you should be in the 5-unit track, and unfortunately you can't study 3 units here!!! You can go somewhere else — if you study here, it's 5 units only."

From a place where I had never once received encouragement about my studies, suddenly came a person who, in that one sentence, told me I was capable. And that is the key to change... one person who believes in you!!

And I studied, and by the end I scored almost 100 on the 5-unit exam, and later I completed a master's degree in the hardest subject at university...!

And today I understand that this is largely thanks to Sami, the principal!

See how much power the words and the people around us have to change our lives...

The book's role for you — parents and children — is exactly what Sami was for me.

If you have a dream or a wish to achieve something, don't wait for someone to bring it to you — just take action, and the world will help you achieve it.

To download the book and the materials about the flea:
Download the book and all the free materials here

With great love,
Lior

How to Download Materials from the Site?

Dear parents, teachers, kindergarten teachers, educators, boys and girls, children — all of you!!

Many people send me messages

that they can't find things on the site

so I filmed a short video

that explains how to find the content on the site...

Here is a link that gathers all the free materials you can download:

Lee the Flea free materials folder

Feel free to share this page with teachers and other educators.

Lior

The Flea Experiment: The Invisible Lid That Holds Us Back — and the Flea Who Refused It

Fleas are, pound for pound, among the greatest athletes on Earth. A creature just 1–3 millimeters long can launch itself roughly 30 centimeters into the air — about 100 times its own body height. If a human being could do the same, we would clear a skyscraper in a single bound. And the takeoff is even more astonishing than the height: a flea accelerates at around 100 g — more than ten times the force a fighter pilot endures — powered by a rubber-like protein in its legs called resilin that stores and releases energy like a coiled spring.

So how on earth can a jumper this extraordinary be taught to stop reaching for the sky? That question sits at the heart of one of the most famous stories in psychology and personal growth: the flea experiment.

What is the flea experiment?

The story goes like this. Take a handful of fleas and drop them into a glass jar. Being champion jumpers, they immediately leap up and out — no lid, no problem. Now place a lid on the jar. The fleas keep jumping, but every leap now ends with a small bump against the glass ceiling. Bump. Bump. Bump.

After a while, something quietly changes. The fleas begin to jump just a little lower — just enough to stop hitting the lid. They have "learned" the ceiling.

Here is the part that makes the story unforgettable: remove the lid, and the fleas keep jumping to exactly the same limited height. The barrier is gone. Freedom is a single leap away. But they never take it. The lid is no longer on the jar — it has moved into their minds. In some versions of the tale, even the next generation of fleas, who never met the lid at all, jumps only as high as their parents did.

Is it real science — or a parable?

It is worth being honest: the flea experiment is best understood as a powerful teaching story rather than a strictly controlled laboratory study. You will not find one definitive peer-reviewed paper titled "Fleas and the Lid." But it was not spun from thin air either — it grows out of a very real practice.

For centuries, fleas were genuine circus performers. Flea circuses were a popular attraction, and trainers really did keep fleas in tiny containers to "break" their instinct to jump away, conditioning them to walk, pull miniature carts, and perform tricks instead. The lid — or the low box — was a training tool. So while the tidy version we retell is a parable, it rests on the true story of the trained circus flea: a champion jumper taught to forget how high it could really go.

The lid is a metaphor — and every one of us has one

The reason this story has traveled the world is that all of us know the feeling of the lid.

We are born with skyscraper-leaping potential. Then life quietly adds a ceiling: a teacher who said we weren't "the creative type," a failure that stung, an offhand comment we never managed to forget, a fear that whispered "people like us don't do things like that." We bump against it a few times — and then, to avoid the pain, we lower our jump. We stop applying, stop asking, stop dreaming quite so big.

And here is the cruel twist the flea experiment captures so perfectly: long after the lid is gone — after the teacher is forgotten, the market has changed, the door has actually opened — we go on jumping to the old, safe height. Nobody is holding us down anymore. We are holding ourselves down.

The flea who refused the lid

This is exactly why we wrote Lee the Flea.

In the book, all the fleas of Fleaville are terrified of ever leaving home — all except Lee, an adventurous young flea who dreams of journeying to the Red Lake, the mythical place where all fleas are said to have come from. When the road ahead turns out to be far harder than he ever imagined, Lee very nearly lets fear win. But then a feisty little ant named Miss Trampoline waltzes into his life, helps him rediscover his courage and confidence, and the two set off on a wondrous, action-packed adventure.

Lee is everything the jar-fleas are not. He feels the fear, he meets the barriers — and he leaps anyway. Miss Trampoline is the friend every dreamer needs: the one who reminds you that the lid was lifted long ago, and that your legs were always built for more.

As the book itself puts it: We too are born into a reality where barriers and dead ends are aplenty. But if we dare to close our eyes, look inward, and take that courageous leap of faith just as Lee did, we may very well discover that not even the sky itself is our limit.

The takeaway — for children and grown-ups alike

The flea experiment is not really about fleas. It is a mirror.

Ask yourself — and ask your children — one honest question: Am I jumping this high because it is truly my limit, or because of a lid that isn't even there anymore?

Find your Red Lake. Take the leap. The ceiling you are so afraid of may have been removed a very long time ago.

Lee the Flea, written by Lior Akirav, illustrated by Efrat Gurkevitch, English translation by Eran Edry. A children's book about daring to dream — and discovering that the sky is not the limit.

Recommendations from Leading People

★★★★★

5.0 out of 5 on Amazon

100% five-star · 10 global ratings for Lee the Flea

★★★★★

"You did a terrific work with this book, Lior Akirav, and I love it! Lee the Flea tells the story of most of us — a way to encourage kids in the most awesome way."

— Babatunde A. (UK)

★★★★★

"This book inspires children to try new things, to think outside the box, to wish and achieve and not let anyone discourage them. It also teaches about friendship and how important it is."

— Hana Lidgi

★★★★★

"A great book for children and those with a child's heart and imagination. Inspirational!"

— Michael O. Schwager

★★★★★

"What a great book! Inspirational and fun to read with the kids. We enjoyed it very much."

— Shalhevet Zohar

★★★★★

"One of the best kids' books ever — very recommended!"

— Amazon Customer

★★★★★

"Amazing and empowering children's book."

— Mark Z.

Read all the reviews on Amazon ★

Lee the Flea at Nitzanim — Dream-Fulfillment Activities

To download the Nitzanim after-school program booklet, click this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rnHy5KTkxiLxj-NoL4piEuVgrmJ_z3tb/view?usp=sharing

Lesson Plan: Jumping Beyond Fear — Inspired by the Book Lee the Flea

Lesson Objectives:

1. Encourage students to face their fears and overcome them through imagination and perseverance.
2. Give students tools for positive thinking and an understanding of the importance of effort.
3. Teach about the power of believing in ourselves, even when the path looks challenging.

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Lesson Structure:

Opening — 5 minutes

• Introducing the book and its messages: We'll briefly explain that the students are about to meet Lee the Flea, a little flea with big dreams. We'll ask the children if they have a dream or a goal they think is hard to achieve.
• Sharing experiences: We'll encourage the children to share dreams or things that scare them, such as fear of failure or challenging situations.

Part One — Reading the Story — 10 minutes

• Reading aloud: We'll read Lee the Flea to the end of the book, with short pauses for explanations.
• Discussion questions:
  • What is Lee trying to achieve in the story?
  • What obstacles stand in his way?
  • How does Lee cope with the difficulty, and what do we learn from him?

Part Two — A Discussion on Fear and Overcoming It — 10 minutes

• The main discussion: We'll talk with the children about the ideas the book raises:
  • Why do you think it's important to face fear rather than avoid it?
  • Is there a chance we could jump beyond fear and achieve our dreams like Lee?
• Positive thinking: We'll remind the children that fear sometimes helps us think of safe ways, but it can also be just a stop along the way to success.

Part Three — A Guided Imagery Exercise (Overcoming Fear) — 10 minutes

• Instruction: We'll ask the students to lie down or sit comfortably, close their eyes, and imagine their fear.
• Guidance:
  • Imagine the fear as something small and shrunken. Just as the flea looks tiny, our fear sometimes feels big — but we can shrink it in our imagination.
  • Imagine yourselves jumping over that fear, just as Lee jumps far and high, and passing it easily.
  • Deep breaths — feel your courage grow with each breath.

Part Four — Creative Activity — 10 minutes

• Drawing the dream or the fear: Each student will draw their fear and the way they want to overcome it. They can also draw Lee the Flea jumping over an obstacle or over their dream.
• Sharing: Anyone who wishes can share their drawing and explain how they intend to cope with the fear or how they see themselves overcoming it.

Closing — 5 minutes

• Key message: We'll wrap up the lesson with Walt Disney's famous line: "If you can dream it, you can do it." We'll emphasize Lee the Flea's strength and what he teaches us about overcoming fear.
• An inspiring example: We'll mention other figures like Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, or someone who overcame a difficulty and succeeded, like Lee.

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Free-to-Use Supporting Materials:

• Coloring pages: You can print sheets for the children with pictures of jumping fleas or small characters overcoming obstacles.
• A presentation or handouts to share: If there's a presentation or supporting material, present it as a summary.

Good luck with the lesson!

P.S. Supporting materials:

• Coloring pages - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12Lx0AWqJAT1i21VjDLB7mVaMZqLwYWVV
• Presentation for group use - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dsv_VuC_hNX3lk_aacZPf1c8RG2W8pEA
• For additional ideas and activity materials, click here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19niAJOiqgjOcgJmZlrmKNaa6EI5bFUu0?usp=sharing

Lee the Flea at Nitzanim After-School Programs

 

The updated file for January 2024:

To download the Nitzanim after-school program booklet, click this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rnHy5KTkxiLxj-NoL4piEuVgrmJ_z3tb/view?usp=sharing

And this is the original old file from 2019