Review: Lulu Is a Rhinoceros

Lulu Is a Rhinoceros by Jason Flom
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The second I saw the cover of this book and read the synopsis I immediately thought that this was going to be a book that uses animals to create an allegory about transsexuality, as another installment in the growing genre of kid’s LGBTQA+ books. The whole "that's what she sees when she looks in the mirror" business felt really on the nose, and I feel like the authors purposefully used this wording in order to generate buzz around this book. In actuality, this felt like any other normal kids book.

You have a character who feels misunderstood by their peers, and so they go on a "journey" to find and/or prove themselves and eventually end up finding peace with who they are and/or a group who accepts them. To me, the story was told in a way that presented Lulu like any other silly character in a children's book that had a silly problem stemming from their silly misconceptions that they went on a silly journey to resolve, and this is the same way how I'd imagine any child who reads this book to also interpret it. It didn't come off as having any actual deeper meaning to me, which can be either a pro or a con depending on what you were hoping to get out of this book.

(view spoiler)[Further reason why I cannot say that this realistically has anything to do with transsexuality is the resolution. Lulu finds herself inside a rhinoceros enclosure in the zoo and is finally recognised as a rhino by the other rhinos simply because she is inside that designated enclosure. I don't see how this could have any connection to transsexuality in any way, unless the message is that if you want people to accept you you have to only hang out with specific people? More specifically, if you're a trans-woman, for example, you have to only hang out with cis-women? What? An even worse connotation being that trans-people are exhibits meant to only be observed and gawked at from afar (ala the last page with zoo-goers marveling at and taking pictures of Lulu). In no way is this book pro-trans, so in giving this book the benefit of the doubt I'll say it has nothing to do with the trans movement in any way. (hide spoiler)]

If you still want to put a realistic spin on a children’s book, if anything this book is about those people who identify as another species, since that's literally what this book is about. Like that woman who reckons herself a cat, for example.

The art is cute, it combines traditional and digital media quite flawlessly and makes for an aesthetically appealing book to read. Lulu is a visually accurate depiction of a bulldog, so as long as your child is not scared by her I think they'll enjoy seeing her prance about the pages on her stilly journey.

Lulu is a Rhinoceros is cute but doesn't add anything new to the children's genre. I rated it three stars because I think it will be a decently enjoyable read for the little ones, however I couldn’t bring myself to rate it any higher because this is my GoodReads account and I myself did not find much enjoyment out of reading it (which makes sense since I'm not the target demographic).

Warning: The word “freak” is used in this book, which is a word I don’t think has any business being in a book targeted at 4-8 year olds.

*E-arc reveived from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


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