In this book review, I share my thoughts on Tamara S. Graham’s children’s book ‘Sunshine and The Power of Words’. A book that is perfect for HSP children to learn how to deal with the effects of name calling and learn compassion.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
I am so excited to be sharing this book review with you! This book was written for HSP children. However, I believe that every highly sensitive person who wants to heal their inner child should get this book.
When I first read the book, I cried. Or to be more specific, my inner child cried, because it finally felt heard. Therefore I knew how important it was to get the word about this beautiful piece of art and knowledge for HSP children out there.
This book (series) will revolutionize parenting of HSP children. In this book review you will discover why I think that.
What To Expect From The Sunshine Book Series For HSP Children
Tamara S. Graham is the brilliant author behind the ‘Sunshine’-series. With her book series, she is creating the stories many of us craved back when we were HSP children ourselves.
Sunshine, the main character, is a highly sensitive child. In the different books, Sunshine’s experience of being an HSP child is described and illustrated in a fun, playful and meaningful manner.
Consequently, these book series help highly sensitive children to understand important aspects such as how to deal with social anxiety, environmental awareness, dealing with separation anxiety, embracing their sensitivity and many more!
In her debut novel ‘Sunshine and The Power of Words’, Tamara S. Graham elegantly created a story about coping with the effects of name calling and learning compassion.
Below, I briefly summarized the plot. However, don’t let this stop you from purchasing the book, because this is just a brief description of what you can expect for your HSP children.
The Plot
Sunshine, the main character, had a bad day at school. Other kids were being mean to her and calling her cruel things. Things that were not true and hurtful. Therefore, Sunshine goes home to find comfort in the kind and loving words of her grandma and the support of her dear cat – her safe haven.
Throughout the story ‘Sunshine and The Power of Words’, Sunshine works through her emotions in a kind, loving and warm way together with her grandma. First, she explains how her day at school went and what experiences upset her.
Then her grandma lovingly listens to her experience, before starting to use specific techniques, metaphors and language to make her granddaughter feel better. Throughout the story, grandma shares her wise thoughts to help Sunshine feel better and cope with the power of words and hurtful experiences in life through a lens of compassion.
For instance, she talks about useful ways to tackle tough situations at school. The two have a deep, meaningful and touching conversation about how Sunshine can work through the experience. Also, she learns how to deal with these challenges in the future.
Ultimately, Sunshine feels better and decides to spread her love and newly gained knowledge with other HSP children – the readers of this book.
My Thoughts On ‘Sunshine and The Power of Words’
As I mentioned, this book truly touched me, because I still have some inner child healing to work on. This book contributed to making my inner child feel validated, loved and seen. Therefore, it was a beautiful experience to read this book, even as an adult.
Below, I am sharing some small fragments from the book, that particularly touched my soul.
“Grandma, sometimes I can feel what the other kids at school are feeling”. – Sunshine
“It might be easy to mix up which feelings are yours or the other person’s. We might feel like we are sad or angry when it isn’t even our own emotion. We could get confused about how we really feel.” – Grandma
This part of the book truly touched my heart and I could not stop bawling my eyes out, because my inner child felt so comforted. Tamara S. Graham beautifully incorporates the empathic characteristics of HSP children in this story.
With this story line, she validates the experiences many HSP children have regarding their empathy. Moreover, she uses unique metaphors to help the young readers understand the messages in a child-friendly, easy comprehendible way.
“Grandma touched the wind chime above the kitchen table. She knew it would help her granddaughter relax. Sunshine loved that twinkling sound which inspired her to take a calming, deep breath.”
What I really liked about this book, is that it is not only valuable for HSP children, but also their parents. It provides parents with examples on how to support their beautiful HSP children in a way that resonates with them.
Language & Illustration
Author Tamara S. Graham uses soft, loving language to get across her message.
For instance, she works with many inspiring and comprehendible metaphors to get across the wisdom of the story. Moreover, the metaphors of this book are easily applicable in daily life for HSP children.
The author managed to translate adult wisdom into child-friendly, fun and interesting language. As a result, I am sure that these wisdoms will help many HSP children to thrive in life.
Also, the illustrations that go along with the story are spot on! The Sunshine series are illustrated by Gaspar D. Sabater. He managed to support the powerful messages of this book with his accurate, playful and beautiful artwork.
To summarize, the story combined with the colorful art create a beautiful book for HSP children.
Some Final Thoughts On This Book For HSP Children
After reading this book, I can highly recommend it to others looking for a good HSP children’s book! Even if you don’t have children, but have some inner child healing to do, this is a powerful tool to validate your inner child.
If your child is struggling with dealing with hurtful words, this book will help your child understand these situations. Moreover, this book also offers valuable tools to you as a parent or grandparent to help your highly sensitive child when it is struggling with hurtful words.
I believe that one of the main struggles for parents who are not highly sensitive is to understand what their highly sensitive child needs. Therefore, this book is a true lifesaver! It helps parents and other caretakers of HSP children to grasp the concepts of high sensitivity in a simple way.
To summarize, I believe that this book series will create a better future for highly sensitive people, providing HSP children and their parents with the right methods to thrive in life. It will soon be available in Spanish as well and I cannot wait for it to be translated for the Dutch market, so I can purchase it for my nephew and niece!
Would you like to purchase the book? You won’t regret it. You can order it straight from Amazon via this link!
