Sometimes the weight of the world can be almost too much to bear. In Colter Jackson’s picture book The Rhino Suit, readers meet a little girl who feels everything deeply. Seeing a stray animal or litter on the ground can ruin her day, and she doesn’t know how to be okay with other people’s sadness.
When the tenderness and sadness of the world feel like they are more than she can handle, she decides to build a rhino suit to keep herself safe. Inside that thick skin, the pain of the world is easy to ignore. Yet she learns that when she blocks herself off from that pain, she also distances herself from her ability to experience the good—and from her ability to help others. And maybe living without that thick skin is worth the risk.
