Water balloons – A hypersensitive story | A bouquet of emotions

” Too sensitive. » « Too sensitive. “Too touchy.” “Too much.” These reproaches, Sarah Degonse heard them over and over again when she was little. “I felt different because I didn’t react like the others,” says the author. In her twenties, she discovered why: she is hypersensitive. Inspired by her past, but also by the present of her daughter Charlie, she wrote the children’s book The water balloons – A hypersensitive story.

Veronique Larocque
The Press

The apple never falls far from the tree, they say. When Sarah Degonse noticed that her daughter Charlie seemed like a hypersensitive child, she looked for a scrapbook to discuss it with her.

“Like many parents, we often use books to open up a dialogue on subjects that affect us: bullying, difference, self-acceptance… Hypersensitivity is a daily challenge for many people. . It is not always easy to manage this overflow of emotions. I wanted to find a book so that we could open the dialogue. To tell him: “Look, the little girl or the little boy is going through the same thing as you. How do you feel ? Do you recognize yourself?” “, explains the one who works in the middle of the youth edition.

Conclusion of research? “I couldn’t find anything at all. »

The author therefore took up her pen and wrote an album inspired by what she experienced as a child and what her daughter is currently experiencing. The heroine is also named Charlie.

balloons-emotions

Just like the 8-year-old girl, the Charlie drawn by illustrator Élodie Duhameau is sometimes overwhelmed by emotions. Some days she throws tantrums. At other times, she feels anxious or fearful. Often, she explodes with joy.

In the book, all these emotions, Sarah Degonse compares them to balloons.

“When the project was born, Charlie was 6 years old. I was trying to find comparisons to him at his level. The balloons, that seemed quite understandable to me. ‘Cause when you live an emotion that’s the fun, that you love, you live it and it flies away. But when she’s less fun, she stays. And she can stay a long time. Like a balloon filled with water.

“When there is too much commotion or too much noise around me […], my balloons all start to burst at the same time, like fireworks! “, can we read, for example, in the album.

“Parents have written to me to tell me that their children are now talking about balloons to express their emotions. That was the best compliment I received for my book, ”says the author. She is also convinced that this story will also reach young people who are not hypersensitive, because, basically, “anyone can be overwhelmed by their emotions”.

A strength

In her youth, Sarah Degonse suffered a lot from the gaze of others. For her, it was essential to address this aspect in water balloons. “Often, highly sensitive people face judgment from people who are not. […] People don’t understand why we “exaggerate”. I put quotation marks, because we are not exaggerating. That’s what we feel, “says the one who lives” everything intensely “. “Good things and bad. »

The mother-of-two hopes her album will help change “the very negative image that sticks to hypersensitivity”. “Yes, there are challenges, but there are beautiful things that come out of it,” she says, noting that these people are often known to be creative and empathetic.

“I sincerely think that my hypersensitivity plays on my way of being with my friends, with my lover, with my children, at work. […] I want to make it a strength and I want Charlie to make it a strength. »

“It’s a bit like having a superpower! “says the heroine at the end of the story.

To write water balloons, Sarah Degonse based herself on her own experience. “I am not a professional. […] She’s just a hypersensitive girl writing with a mother’s heart about her hypersensitive daughter. This is my feeling of hypersensitivity. »

The water balloons – A hypersensitive story

Text by Sarah Degonse, illustrations by Élodie Duhameau

Editions La Bagnole

From 4 years old