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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:
BiscayTrafalgarFitzroy · 18/03/2018 21:44

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

YolandiFuckinVisser · 18/03/2018 21:44

Niffler is it the Machine Gunners?

YolandiFuckinVisser · 18/03/2018 21:43

Once there were Giants
Nothing
He's my brother
Dogger

bobdylannumber1 · 18/03/2018 21:41

Her mothers face by Roddy Doyle

Nifflerbowtruckle · 18/03/2018 21:39

Does anyone know the name of this book? It's a children's book about children in the war. The kids have dens and go searching for shrapnel and play and they talk about the bomb shelters they have. One of the families has one inside under the kitchen table so they don't have to go outside every night and one night they receive a direct hit and the boy who the story is about is devastated as his friend has died. That makes little sense Hmm.

SchnitzelVonKrumm · 18/03/2018 21:37

The Velveteen Rabbit makes me AND my children cry. The Story of Holly and Ivy: "I told you it was a story about wishing".

onemouseplace · 18/03/2018 21:37

Missingthesea I thought of the Anne books as well - although the bit that always gets me is when Captain Jim crosses the bar in Anne’s House of Dreams.

And actually, re-reading as an adult I was floored when she loses her baby, which I never picked up on in the same way as a child.

onemouseplace · 18/03/2018 21:34

The Children of Green Knowe when Tolly’s finds out what happened to the children. It’s such a beautiful book without being scary or creepy at all.

StringandGlitter · 18/03/2018 21:34

Bridge to Terabithia

The day the sea went out and never came back

Youranus · 18/03/2018 21:34

Morpurgos Butterfly Lion.

purpleme12 · 18/03/2018 21:34

Oooh brilliant someone else who remembers my book! No one knows of my books lol

3girlsmama · 18/03/2018 21:34

The heart and the bottle by Oliver Jeffers, read it to my eldest when she was a toddler and not long after FIL died, I could not get through it without tears.

purpleme12 · 18/03/2018 21:33

Oooh someone who knows Badger's Parting Gifts! I've got a very dog eared copy of this from when I was little! Will be reading it my child when she's a bit older.

mumsy2015 · 18/03/2018 21:33

On the night you were born for me too. I have been reading it to my daughter for 6 years now and still struggle to get through the end without blubbing. It totally summed up how i felt when she was born.

Missingthesea · 18/03/2018 21:32

The Railway Children
Goodbye Mog
Goodnight Mr Tom
The Last Battle.

Oh, and the bit in Anne of Green Gables when Matthew dies!

wanderings · 18/03/2018 21:32

@purpleme12 I remember Red Sky in the Morning. I think of Mumsnet when I remember the line: "I didn't mind the children who said 'look at that baby's big head'. I did mind the mums who hissed 'shhhhhh!' "

And an obscure one: King Oak of Sevenoaks, which tells the story of the seven oaks, six of which were uprooted one by one in the great storm of 1987. King Oak is the only one which survives, and sobs and howls for the others; and when saplings are planted to replace the first six, these are vandalised.

sourpatchkid · 18/03/2018 21:28

"The wonderful Things you will be"
-a 1st birthday present for DS. We've read it every night since then and it's only now (he's 16 months) that DH and I have stopped blubbering at some point in the story! 🙄

I hadn't predicted this part of parenting ...

SuperPug · 18/03/2018 21:28

Oh, Dogger. Sad That awful moment when Dogger is bought by another child and his sister gets it back.
Goodnight Mr Tom was the first book I read that didn't glorify families or childhood, if that makes any sense.

strawberrypenguin · 18/03/2018 21:27

Dogger
The Velveteen Rabbit
Goodnight Mister Tom

SharesinClarks · 18/03/2018 21:27

Badger's parting gifts.

bringonyourwreckingball · 18/03/2018 21:27

Dogger. It made my BIL cry when he was a boy and I have the most lovely photo of him reading it to my dd1 when she was tiny. Also Goodbye Mog and Library Lion which is a wonderful book I highly recommend.

SadSongsAndWaltzes · 18/03/2018 21:25

Oh so many!
I came on to say Paper Dolls too! Also Oh, The Places You'll Go, and Rosie Revere, Engineer.
I'm sure there are loads more. I do cry an awful lot though. I'm the only person I know to have cried at the Full Monty.

Gunpowder · 18/03/2018 21:23

I bought ‘I’ll love you forever’ after reading one of these threads and I think it is a bit creepy TBH. That mum doesn’t know when to stop!

VelvetGreen · 18/03/2018 21:23

The Little Prince. I try to tell myself that it's allegorical but it doesn't help - I still howl every time.

Bonkersblond · 18/03/2018 21:23

DD and I about a third of the way through Wonder and we shed a tear tonight.

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