Regular Lu Deserves to be More than Ordinary
Regular Lu by Robin Nelson
Sometimes it's possible to read too much into a tale. It's a compelling temptation in Robin Nelson's first book, Regular Lu.
Regular Lu is the story of a mouse who is tired of being overlooked and wishes himself king of all the animals. It's a pampered life at first, but then the other animals start making demands. The Dalmatian is jealous of the cheetah's spots and demands that he be turned blue and spot-free. The deer wants the tiger to be less camouflaged. The snake wants more tasty mice in his meadow.
The demands pile higher and higher until the mouse gives up and wishes to once more be a regular mouse.
It's a story told charmingly in rhymes with accessible language that is sure to make children smile. Certainly it brought a smile to my son's face, despite his desire to have more sophisticated tastes than that found in a picture book. The story is supported with pencil and crayon illustrations of expressive animals that retell the tale with every stroke.
Overall, I was rather tickled with this 32-page book that was given a 2005 Mom's Choice Award by the Just for Mom Foundation. I began to see all sorts of delightful themes in it. It was a clever story about the responsibility that comes with greatness. This little mouse thinks it's all about sleeping on cakes and parading about in fine costumes and then discovers that being a king means that he must try to alleviate the woes of his subjects. He was forced to deal with conflicting demands, and I couldn't but help wonder whether some of it was allegory for political power in even the most modern of societies.
The book seemed to be talking about the learned helplessness of creatures who would turn to an authority figure to complain about their lot in life and ask that it be changed rather than face their challenges with creativity and enthusiasm. This made me wonder whether the book might not be addressing certain religious themes in a very subtle manner — those very questions about the relation of humanity to the divine and how so many of us choose to blame the Creator rather than celebrate our opportunities.
I also appreciated that the mouse chose to go back to being a regular mouse — he recognized the value of peace over power. What a delightful message in a world that preaches that more is better and that there is no price too great to pay for wealth, fame, or power. Instead, we see a mouse choosing a simpler, more peaceful life for which he has a renewed appreciation rather than one of great power, wealth, and comfort but a moral bankruptcy.
Alas, the book flap told me that I'd missed the point. It instead informed me that "the hardest thing of all to be sometimes is oneself. Regular Lu learns an important lesson about finding value in who he is."
Oh.
So, apparently the moral is that we shouldn't try to achieve anything beyond what we are given at birth — that a mouse shouldn't be a king because mice aren't supposed to be kings. I can't say I'm in the least bit comfortable with that as a lesson. Why would we want to teach our children that they shouldn't strive to be all that they can be? That they should never leave their comfort zone? Perhaps this is a lesson that would fit well with a society that has rigid caste or social systems in which society thinks it best to teach people to stay in their places.
No, I think I'll be removing the flap of this book and continue to enjoy the story for what I see in it and try to forget that the publisher thinks Regular Lu should never strive beyond the mundane.
And maybe I'll try to read a little less into the next children's book I pick up.
