I like that this book provides a balanced view on “being sensitive”, but I have a mix feeling about the storyline.

Being sensitive, Aurora the rabbit catches some sensations others may miss: spring brings the cactus blooms, the warmth of the sun beating on the sand, or the scent of sagebrush after the rain. But it also means Aurora can sense the feelings of others, which sometimes overwhelm her, and she is often overthinking about others.

Though the examples offered in this story include her concerns whether the coyote howls out of loneliness or fear, and her worries about other animals during the rainstorm. I’m not an expert on the topic of high sensitivity, but in my humble opinion, I would view Aurora’s concerns as kindness.

When her family’s house is washed away in the flood, Aurora has a very hard time overcoming this adverse event to attend her family’s needs. While I follow the authors’ intention to represent judgements highly sensitive people often contend with, to be fair, the situation presented here would be very emotional to anyone, high sensitivity or not.

I like the part of the story where the animals suggest ways to help Aurora when she feels overwhelmed: Lizard recommends to sit quietly and soak in the sun. Cactus wren offers to fly away to spend some alone time. While these suggestions sounded good, I thought being quiet, staying in the sun and spending time alone are what Aurora has been doing all along, to the degree that her mom starts to worry.

Overall, this is a book which explores an important topic and offers a positive message.

Thank you to Sounds True Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved how this adorable picture book portrayed someone who was sensitive. Instead of focusing on herself, Aurora the cottontail rabbit worries about others too. This allows her to have empathy and understand how others feel, leading to many friendships.
Being sensitive is so often portrayed negatively but it's just a different personality. Aurora is a wonderful, likeable character. There is also information about other animals and plants in the desert where Aurora lives.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

4 stars

This is an illustrated book addressed to younger readers. Meaning and conclusions of the story, I feel it's not something that 'older' generations talked about while growing up. It's amazing that we can talk about sensibility and being 'too much' or 'too little' with children from the very young age and teach them how to cope with it and that's normal.
I'm also very fond of the graphics of the book which make the storyline more beautiful.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy in exchage for an honest opinion! <3

I really wanted to read this story because I have a very sensitive child in my home and he is the only boy out of his siblings. I cuddled with him and had mommy and me time with him and read him this book. He loved it and had so many questions and ideas on how to help with his feelings. Yesterday I overheard him tell his sister to stop teasing him because it hurts his feelings and she apologized! I was so happy that instead of crying that she was picking on him, he stood up for himself. I will definitely buy a copy of this book when its published so that he can have his own copy and read it whenever he is feeling sensitive. I wanted him to see that other people (in this case a bunny) sometimes are sensitive and that it's fine and there are ways to manage our feelings when we don't know what to do with them. Thank you for writing this amazing book and for writing a book for the empath and sensitive children. Thank you to Netgalley for the Advanced e-read of this book!

In the Sonoran Desert lives a little cottontail named Aurora. Aurora spent most of her time alone, preferring it to the noise and commotion caused by her siblings. When tragedy strikes her home, Aurora worries for the other animals and the land around her. As she speaks with other desert creatures, she learns to embrace her sensitivity and how to help manage when her emotions become too tough.
This story was really sweet, and the message was one that I think a lot of people (and children) would feel seen by. This book would be a really great read-aloud tool to talk about social emotional learning and strategies for big emotion with elementary students. The illustrations were nicely done and would be interesting for a child to flip through. I like how the author included real animals as the creatures Aurora interacts with in the story, and that the back of the book has a space giving information about those animals.

The Highly Sensitive Rabbit is a children's book about hypersensitivity, exploring the Sonoran desert and the animals and plants that inhabit it through the eyes of an emotional and empathetic young rabbit. Aurora learns to manage her emotions, one animal at a time, integrating advice for her everyday life, whether it's breathing, talking or setting boundaries. She accepts herself as she is, she doesn't need to change to fit in, and that's just fine.
Katy Tanis' drawings are gentle and the settings quite contemplative. The cover illustration and the last one with desert cottontail's mama bunny are my favorites, and really gives off something.
Finally, at the end, a reminder of the different species is presented, bringing this album to an intelligent conclusion.
A small ‘toolbox’ list with advice from the animals could also have been added to finish on a high note.

A truly moving story, The Highly Sensitive Rabbit offers valuable insights into the experiences of highly sensitive children. This book serves as a compassionate companion for navigating the unique joys and challenges of a sensitive heart.

Aurora's journey resonates deeply with anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by external stimuli or the emotions of others. The story authentically portrays the delicate balance between the rich inner world of a sensitive person and the vulnerability and the loneliness that can accompany it. Aurora’s experience after the flash flood attempts to highlight the essential role of community in healing and growth. We see how empathy and understanding can help transform sensitivity from a potential source of struggle into a wellspring of empathy and connection.

Reading The Highly Sensitive Rabbit was a deeply enriching experience. This book offers gentle guidance and affirms the value of sensitivity. It’s a book I wholeheartedly recommend to children, parents, and and anyone else seeking to understand and celebrate the gifts of a sensitive nature.

Cute and fun, my niece would love it. Has a good message about accepting yourself even when you're different. The art was good.

I loved how sensitive the rabbit was throughout the book. This book would be good for smaller kids, because it teaches important lessons that can be easily learned with this type of writing.

What a lovely book! The illustrations are beautiful — gorgeous colors and engaging visuals that bring the story to life. I also loved the names of the bunnies, so cute!

This is the perfect book for sensitive, empathetic souls. It helps children put words to their feelings and validates their experiences. While I imagine this book is especially meaningfully for empaths, it's an important message for any child to foster understanding of their peers and different emotional responses.

I liked how The Highly Sensitive Rabbit begins by showing us what it's like to be highly sensitive in various situations and then offers tools for managing those feelings. It encourages self-acceptance and emotional awareness in a very digestible way for children. And I thought the key at the end detailing the desert animals and plants that appear throughout the story was a great educational addition.

Thank you to NetGalley and the authors for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review!

There was a good idea here, but some choices don't fully make sense. But first, what worked:
1. The main character, Aurora, is deeply in touch with nature and others' feelings, It will no doubt kickstart good habits in young readers.
2. The illustrations were stunning! Plants and animals were true-to-life, but also in beautiful watercolor an adorable detail.
3. Including various coping skills that kids can apply to their own lives was a very smart choice to make!

What didn't work:
1. The title felt...odd. It feels too rigid or formal for a kids' book. Additionally, I understand that it's supposed to make being sensitive a positive thing, but it actually does the opposite with the title.
2. The message was over-the-top. It's great that the authors are trying to show kids that being sensitive isn't a bad thing, and that it's actually pretty beneficial. However, you also don't want kids to take that message and become obsessive with it, which I feel like this book achieves (unfortunately). Put simply, there's a happy medium that needs to be found.

I used to be a highly sensitive child, and this book would have been perfect for me. Kids grow up with a natural sensitivity that the world teaches them to ignore as the world is cruel. I fell in love immediately with Aurora, who has never left that sensitivity behind no matter what the world brings her. She's taught by the parts of the world that she so adores how to keep what makes her her, and it doesn't crush her like the rest of the world would.

The fact that children are able to keep that sensitivity and love and empathy that they are naturally instilled with while setting boundaries and learning that people can accept them for how they are is such a heartwarming message and one I would gladly revisit over and over again.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with the eARC for this book!

"The Highly Sensitive Rabbit" is a beautifully written and illustrated book that delivers an important message about sensitivity and self-acceptance. I loved how it wove practical techniques for overcoming challenges into the story, reinforcing that it’s okay to be sensitive and that our differences can be strengths.

The graphics were stunning, bringing the Sonoran Desert to life, and I especially appreciated the inclusion of facts about the animals and plants throughout the book. It added an educational layer that makes this a great read for both children and adults.

While some may find it more instructional in its approach, I think the beauty of the book lies in its ability to spark self-reflection and meaningful conversations. Whether read by a child with their parent or even used in a professional setting with children, the story creates space for important discussions about emotions, empathy, and resilience.

This is definitely a book I’d buy for my nieces and nephews—it’s a reminder that it’s okay not to be okay, and that sensitivity can be a gift rather than a weakness.

This was the sweetest book! The rabbit is very sensitive and as someone who is also very sensitive raising a highly sensitive child, I could relate. I loved that each animal provided a calming technique for the rabbit and the illustrations were absolutely beautiful. My children and I really enjoyed reading this book at bedtime and it opened a dialogue about emotions for all of us.

Thank you the the author and NetGalley for providing me this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Better to be sensitive than to miss all of the sweet and heart-tugging interactions between the animal characters in this imaginative story. Aurora feels things that most of her family and friends don’t seem to - the coyote howling at the winter moon, the fear of other small creatures who might be caught in the rain d the dark, and sometimes it’s all just too overwhelming to bear. By having conversations about how she feels with some of the other acquaintances that she finds as she wanders away from her family after they have been displaced by a huge, scary storm, she discovers ways to cope with her big feelings and also that she is t the sole animal who has these deeper experiences.
A lovely, memorable tale with lessons of kindness, empathy, and thoughtfulness. Recommended for reading aloud or for older readers to discover themselves.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I feel conflicted about this book, because the topic is one which is personal to both myself and my child.
I therefore wished for it to be a way to start a dialogue as well as give some tools in a child friendly way.

Unfortunately it feels a bit like the books is trying to fulfil a checklist:
1. An ‘empath’ feels this, this and that
2. They also worry about this and can be stuck like
3. And when something happens they will feel this
4. Ways to mange it are this, this and that.

The most fleshed out part of the story is what Aurora loves on the first two pages.
When other animals present a method of managing her sensitivity, it just says that she tried it and it helped.

On my opinion the book would have benefitted from a more fleshed out story so it didn’t JUST feel like a toolkit.

On the positive, I really enjoyed the use of flora and fauna from the dessert and the details about each of them in the back of the book.

I received this book as a digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

I found this story to be a little too didactic. That said, as a sensitive person myself, I ALSO had a few moments of self-reflection, feeling understood, and all those warm and fuzzies, so I hope that this book finds the readers who need it.

The Highly Sensitive Rabbit is a charming children's picture book about a young rabbit with a kinder and gentler approach to the surrounding world. the young rabbit stares up at the stars and the sky and ponders deeply about the universe. The rabbit appreciates the beauty of the natural environment. when interacting with other animals, such as the little rabbit's siblings, the rabbit forms greater connections to the dialogue and reactions of those around her. However, the rabbit's siblings begin to notice that Aurora is different. The other rabbits complain to their mother about how Aurora is spending too much time in deep and contemplative thought. Aurora eventually distances herself and befriends other animals who guide her along her own personal journey of self-discovery. Eventually, Aurora learns to accept herself exactly as she is and in turn learns to rebuild friendships with those who she became alienated from in her pursuit of deeper connections with the world around her.

Young readers will love The Highly Sensitive Rabbit because it teaches lessons such as believing in yourself even when those around us complain and indicate otherwise through their words and actions.

Beautifully written, beautiful illustrations and loved the key at the end with details of all the desert animals/plants that appear throughout the story. I read to my 5 year old son for bed and he loved Aurora very much.

I may even recommend this book to those who have lost their home due to the recent fires. It teaches you about coping skills to deal with the loss, how to set boundaries, and that support is there even if in different ways. Much love!

This is the story of desert animals and plants and what happens when there is a storm. The rabbit is highly sensitive and gets calming tips from many of the animals in the desert.