But then he takes a cold, hard look at himself: he looks nothing like a flower or bird - he is dull-black (as bats are, as bats need to be). But then he chances upon a technicolor cowboy movie at a drive-in theater and, in awe of the vivid, vivacious color-feast, decides to stay up until dawn to see the daytime world: and is filled with sheer delight to see what he'd been missing during sleep - a world of flowers and birds etcetera. Rufus is your typical bat - hangs from the ceiling in his cave and flies around hunting at night. The fact that this book was originally published in 1961 isn't sufficient to explain this. Bats are misunderstood creatures that are often discriminated against, but I hadn't expected to find acts of violence against them in a children's story book.

Since this is a picture book marketed to children, I was rather surprised that the bat was shot. If one doesn't like how one's life is going, then s/he can stop, reevaluate, and change course.

If something isn't working out, or if one decides that a course of action simply isn't for him/her, it's foolish to pursue whatever it is to the bitter end. While it is important to finish what you started, it's equally important not to fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy. It also defies the assertion that you can't go home again. This story is about thinking outside the box with the classic children's moral 'it's okay to be different.' Rufus decides to do something atypical for his species and discovers he has an aptitude for it, which is gentle encourage for young readers to try new things that catch their interest even if it is considered unusual for their ethnic group/gender/culture/socioeconomic class. Eventually, Rufus discovers he misses the nighttime world and returns to being nocturnal. Wounded, he lands in the yard of a famous butterfly collector who nurses him back to health and befriends him. Unfortunately, the sight of a multicolored bat flying around during the day is a cause for alarm, and people shoot at him. His experience of color instantly makes him a daytime convert, and he paints himself multiple colors with a discarded painter's palette. Intrigued, he decides to stay awake and see the daytime world. When a bat named Rufus strays into a drive-in movie theater, he is introduced to the world of color. After Rufus experiences color for the first time, he decides to stay awake during the day.

Rufus by Tomi Ungerer