My Inner Battlefield Found a Way into My First Children’s Book

Opposing forces playing tug-of-war (Image courtesy of worldofmiri.com)

It ended up deeper than first intended

To find out more about ‘Heroes of the Quest - An Impossible Team’, check out their website here!

“Team! I am your leader on this Quest! Follow me!” From the outset of their adventure, Master Mouse is hampered by his hilarious and calamitous teammates who don’t even recognize him as their leader. A mouse, a giraffe, a slug and… a pig?!? All perfectly imperfect, how can they possible compete against the mighty lions? Will they even finish the final challenge of Quest School?

This is the blurb of my first children’s book ‘Heroes of the Quest - An Impossible Team’, self-published in May 2022 (first published as ‘Master Mouse’ in 2021). 

Inner opposing forces in my book-creation journey

The journey to get from a first idea to a fully printed book has been an emotional roller-coaster. I cannot recount how many times I was overcome by self-doubt and the fear of being judged. Still, I also felt the strong urge to keep going. I needed courage and was continuously challenged to step out of my comfort zone. 

When I worked on extracting the core message of the story, I gasped. There it was, my own inner battlefield, beautifully reflected in the inner conflicts of each character. 

Synopsis of my children’s book ‘Heroes of the Quest - An Impossible Team’ 

Master Mouse, Gemma Giraffe, Sally Slug and Robert Pig are thrown together in an uneven team with the goal of completing a quest as prerequisite for their successful graduation from Quest School.

While moving through the story to identify someone to rescue, each of the characters’ unique flaws float to the surface: Sally is slow, Robert single-mindedly focused on food, Gemma illiterate and Master Mouse over-confident and bossy.

During the course of the Quest, Master Mouse manages to lose each of his team members. Eager to prove his capabilities and overcome his low self-esteem, he is excited to go off on his own but is snatched by an eagle. The other three team members combine their unique skills and rescue Master Mouse in haphazard circumstances.

They all return to Quest School, jubilant about receiving their Questing diplomas. However, as Master Mouse was the one rescued, he does not qualify. The team pull together and recall the events that led to Master Mouse inadvertently saving Sally Slug along the way, allowing them to graduate together.

When the story found me, at first, I simply laughed at the obvious punchlines. For instance, Master Mouse can’t distinguish a tadpole from a boa constrictor because he never paid any attention in his zoology lessons at school, which leads to a series of quirky misunderstandings. But the longer I spent with the story, the stronger the core message struck me.

Deviating from the ancient narrative ‘good guys vs bad guys’

The story of "‘Heroes of the Quest - An Impossible Team’ deviates from the old narrative of “good” versus “bad”. Instead, it takes the “battlefield” into each character, who are all struggling to acknowledge their “weaknesses”. It reminds us we are all perfectly imperfect. Despite the perceived weaknesses, the team manages to win in the end: not only their diplomas, but also through securing a Quest team to work with in the future. The key point is the reciprocal acknowledgement of each other’s weaknesses and how, by working together and helping each other, they lift each other up and make each other stronger.

What would have been the alternative narrative? Following the old scheme of “good guys versus bad guys”, each one’s flaws would have been projected and blamed onto an outsider or the circumstances. Each one’s own confidence would have been boosted by ridiculing or diminishing another one. No one would have taken responsibility for everything they are, including the ‘weak’ bits we usually try to hide.

Learnings for us as humanity: Helping each other makes us stronger 

I believe ‘Heroes of the Quest - An Impossible Team’ holds a core message for all of us. Co-operating and working together makes us stronger. Helping each other lifts all of us up. Allowing ourselves to be fully human, which includes accepting and taking responsibility for our unique strengths and vulnerabilities, can move us forward, and with this I mean all of us, as humankind.