Bodie and the Ghost Showdown

A warm, insightful, and empowering story that beautifully captures the inner world of a child living with emetophobia. Through Bodie's courage, humour, and struggles, kids learn that fear can be faced one small step at a time. This book is an invaluable resource for any child who longs to feel braver and less alone.

This book is incredible. Dr. Jones tells an accurate and impactful story of what it's like living with emetophobia and why overcoming it is so challenging. Parents will get a view into their child's world of emetophobia and children will feel validated and be set on the path to a life free from fear. The intuitive response to emetophobia is often the opposite of what is required for recovery and this book explains this ironic concept with an engaging and compassionate story. I only wish I had this when I was a child struggling in school.

As a lifelong sufferer of emetophobia and now a parent, I found this book brilliant in helping your child with strategies to take control of their own ghost and live life to the full.

As both a clinician who has worked with anxious children for many years and a parent who has walked this road personally, I know how profoundly the fear of getting sick can shape a child's world. Emetophobia is far more common than most people recognize. I've seen it forcefully drive school avoidance, selective eating, social withdrawal, and a level of daily distress that families struggle to handle. What often looks like 'general anxiety' is in fact a very specific, very powerful fear-and one that is frequently overlooked in professional settings. Bodie and the Ghost Showdown captures this experience with honesty and accuracy. Dr. Jones understands the internal logic of this phobia-the hypervigilance, the physical symptoms, the cycle of avoidance-and she brings it to life in a way that is accessible to children without diminishing the seriousness of what they're facing. What I appreciate most about this book is that it doesn't simply name the problem; it gently guides children toward the skills that lead to real change. The story reflects the core elements of treatment: facing the fear, reducing safety behaviors, tolerating discomfort, and reclaiming the parts of life the phobia has taken away. It offers children the hope that they can be braver than their fear-and it shows parents what progress can look like. For families dealing with emetophobia, resources are surprisingly limited. This book fills a genuine gap. It is heartfelt, clinically sound, and deeply validating for the child who feels alone in this struggle. I'm grateful Dr. Jones has given them a story that can open those doors.