I am seldom stirred by stories, be they children’s, Essop’s or fireside tales. But yesterday I was more than a little disturbed while reading a book with the title, “Would They Love A Lion?” to a six-year-old child.

With beautiful illustrations and several awards trailing its title, the story is about Anna, who attempts many iterations of herself in the quest for love (her family’s love). Anna tries it out as a bird, decrying the smallness of the nest.

Lion tales

She dismisses a rabbit, a dinosaur and various other animals for their inadequacy.  A lion has all the attributes Anna seeks. Would they love a lion? Anna asks settling on this creature as the one with the right amount of power and wisdom to draw back and laze in the sun after a feast.

However, in the illustration, the lion causes pandemonium at the supper table where the family members look on in horror. And to crown it all there is no resolution to the question, Would they love a lion?

Family fit

Anna’s journey through various phases of identity to find a fit that would be right for her kin, does nothing to lift a society that struggles with low self-esteem, and sacrificial self-worth; where women (and men) take unspeakable abuse in relationships that diminish what little sense of self-respect there is, and where gender-based violence stats are always on the up.

Would They Love A Lion? erodes any sense of self-worth encouraging the child to be anything but themselves – starting out with “Anna wanted to be a bird, but wasn’t.”  And that in my opinion is where the story should have started and ended.

Not a bird

Anna was not a bird, nor any of the other animals. She did not have the characteristics that she tried to imbue. Anna, was just Anna – and why not loveable just the way she was?

What message are we sending to our children? Am I reading too much into this? In a world where the likes of Louise Hay implore us across widely dispersed social media channels – ‘if there’s one affirmation a day to be said for a full minute it’s “ I love and accept myself unconditionally,”’ I think not.

Hay’s appeal in a see of others, tells you how much damage has been done. And it starts in the formative years. My sense of this story is spot on! I urge an elevated level of scrutiny of what we feed into our children’s minds especially when ‘a reading for meaning’ target is at the forefront of our teaching!!

Hard to call someone a horse’s ass: idiom usage

Why are squibs damp? How idioms are formed

Cat got your tongue? Origin of idioms