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Original poster

Children’s books that make you cry

179 replies

BikeRunSki · 18/03/2018 20:25

When DD (now 6) was younger I could never finish The Paper Dolls without shedding a tear.

Tonight, we’be just finished the Sophie series (Dick King-Smith). The last 2 or 3 chapters had me crying my eyes out. DD was Hmm “but Mummy, it’s only a book’”.

OP posts:
Pinklady301 · 19/03/2018 09:10

Thanks Niffler, I think it is War Horse!!

MrsElf · 18/03/2018 23:56

Oh dear, almost every book mentioned so far - but how have you all missed Greyfriars Bobby? And Oscar Wilde's children's books? Baa baa black sheep (Kipling, not the rhyme). Quite a lot by Kipling actually, the worst offender being Thy Servant, a Dog.

DoctorTwo · 18/03/2018 23:42

Goodbye Mog, AKA The Book That Doesn't Exist.

Mincepies76 · 18/03/2018 23:37

Mole and the baby bird.

Orlandointhewilderness · 18/03/2018 23:35

the velveteen rabbit
the last mog one
goodnight mr tom
the last page of the polar express
but
we have just finished the house at pooh corner and this finished me off completely...
"'Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred.'
Pooh thought for a little.
'How old shall I be then?'
'Ninety-nine.'
Pooh nodded.
'I promise,' he said."

then of course this had me in floods.

"So they went off together. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing."

MollyCule · 18/03/2018 23:27

The Selfish Giant
Goodnight Mister Tom
Paper Dolls

DearMrDilkington · 18/03/2018 23:23

Glad it's not just me that gets emotional reading "oh, the places you'll go". It's so beautifully written, I made the mistake of reading it to dd for the first time the night before she started primary school. I was in floods of tears afterwards Blush

TizzleBizzle · 18/03/2018 23:20

Totti
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
When the World was Waiting for You

All for different reasons - all tear-jerkers. Wonderful books.

Jassmells · 18/03/2018 23:17

The Velveteen Rabbit - only have just finally read this a few weeks ago and I was a mess!

Nothing - V similar to the above about a bear who gets left behind in a house move and is referred to as "oh that's nothing"

Monkey Puzzle (on a bad day!)

A cat named Perkins (think that's what it's called)

Misty9 · 18/03/2018 23:06

I love you little monster. Had me in tears the first time as me and ds we’re going through a rough patch and it just summed up beautifully what I wanted to say. He was bemused to say the least Grin

AtrociousCircumstance · 18/03/2018 23:03

Oh The Places You’ll Go for me too.

‘Kid, you’ll move mountains’ 😭

Original poster
BikeRunSki · 18/03/2018 23:00

There’s Going To Be A Baby has me in floods when I was 7 months pg. I was in the library with 2 yo DS. He was rather alarmed!

OP posts:
SarfE4sticated · 18/03/2018 22:59

Peepo - always makes me cry - reminds me of all of my grandparents and greatgrandparents and all the people who died in the war.

Its the line "and the baby in the mirror, just like him" that I can't say without choking up. Everything about WW2 upsets me though tbh.

Ivebeenaroundtheblock · 18/03/2018 22:56

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch i can't even look at the cover!!
went to the book store to pick up a few Robert Munch books for the grandchildren....sobbed in the store...dh didn't understand why...kept insisting i explain the book...

hesterton · 18/03/2018 22:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TimesNewRoman · 18/03/2018 22:51

The Snail and the Whale for some reason always gets me.

And No Matter What.

GuinefortGrey · 18/03/2018 22:50

The Velveteen Rabbit. Oh god. I tried to read it to DD a couple of years ago and ended up a blubbering wreck. She still occasionally says "don't ever read that rabbit book again". She was very upset by me being so upset. I feel so bad about it!

The Birthday Surprise by Shirley Hughes, where Bob McNally's cat, Smoky, dies of old age 😭 and of course along similar lines, Goodbye Mog.

The one that utterly traumatised me as a child was The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The little girl's father died in India leaving her a penniless orphan in a horrible boarding school in England. It did have a happy ending but not the one I wanted which would have been the girl's father turning up to save her not dead after all! I can remember being distraught by it. My dad worked abroad for months on end when I was a child and I think this book played on my fears of him never coming home.

WipedOutDaze · 18/03/2018 22:47

The end of Winnie the Pooh where Christopher Robin is about to go away to school and he asks Pooh never to forget him.

conversationdiva · 18/03/2018 22:45

Michael Rosen’s Sad Book
The Heart and the Bottle
Goodbye Mog

All three of these are very sad.

TwigTheWonderKid · 18/03/2018 22:44

Pretty much everything Michael Morpurgo has written makes me sob. And The Mousehole Cat.

PoohBearsHole · 18/03/2018 22:42

And Charlotte Web

bluebell1981 · 18/03/2018 22:42

We have a few of the Mog books but hadn't heard of 'goodbye mog' as mentioned a few times on this thread. Just read the description to DH whilst sobbing and gulping. That is one book I won't be getting, ever!

PoohBearsHole · 18/03/2018 22:42

No matter what - cant stop myself

Little Women

Little Princess

Dark Materials

Just because I knew it off by heart as read it every night to the dc - the tiger that cane to tea

buckleten · 18/03/2018 22:40

Black Beauty, Charlotte's Web and some of the Jacqueline Wilson books that I read to my girls!

PinkBuffalo · 18/03/2018 22:39

Absolutely the velveteen rabbit.
Don't ever read it with a child, you'll never get through it in one piece!

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