"You hurt my feeeelings!
Hurty Feelings is a 2004 picture book written by Helen Lester and illustrated by Lynn Munsinger.
Fragility is a powerful hippopotamus with a spirit as easily hurt as her frame is solidly built, prone to taking her friends' remarks as negatively as possible. Can an encounter with a real bully toughen her up?
This book contains examples of the following tropes:
- An Aesop: Take a comment as it's intended rather than being oversensitive.
- Befriending the Enemy: Fragility soothes the upset Rudy after she accidentally insults him. In return, Rudy decides to leave the soccer team alone and let them keep their goal.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: When Fragility accidentally insults Rudy, he starts crying and wails, "You hurt me feelings!"
- The Bully: The smaller animals keep out of Rudy's way when he arrives and announces he's going to eat their goal. Knowing Fragility's emotional sensitivity, Rudy decides to insult her so she won't get in his way.
- Catchphrase: Fragility tends to wail, "You hurt my feelings!" regularly.
- Character Development: Fragility learns to accept compliments rather than over-analyzing them.
- Extreme Omnivore: Rudy arrives on the scene planning to eat the goal Fragility is guarding.
- Huggy, Huggy Hippos: Fragility is a Gentle Giant who doesn't take advantage of her strength. She even pats and consoles Rudy, who deliberately tried to insult her and scared her friends.
- Ironic Name: Fragility's name is incongruous if it's taken as referring to her physically; being a hippopotamus, she has a very solid build and great strength.
- Meaningful Name: Fragility's name fits her personality to a tee; her feelings get hurt very easily.
- Prone to Tears: As her name implies, Fragility has very easily hurt feelings. Consequently, she spends a lot of time in tears. This leads other animals to avoid conversation, leaving her lonely.
- Twisting the Words: A non-malicious example. Fragility always subjects people's comments to the most oversensitive interpretation, leading her to perceive them negatively. For instance, telling her she looks nice will cause her to burst into tears because cupcakes are also nice, but they're squishy, so it must be an insult.
