Is it wrong that the only book to ever make me cry proper real tears . . .

Oh God, I nearly cried in a bookshop reading Michael Rosen's Sad Book. The last pages, with a big party and then him alone in the dark with a single candle...

I knew this would be either Black Beauty or Watership Down, both made me sob uncontrollably and probably would if I read them again now.

It's rare for a book to make me cry these days (I'm fairly hard-hearted and tend to just get annoyed by blatant attempts to manipulate my emotions), but sad stories about animals will generally do it!

Oh god - there is a book called Seven Little Australians - bit like a cross between What Katy Did and Little Women. It had me sobbing my heart out. Not just a few tears (that is quite common for me ) but full on sobbing.

YY to James Herriot too, especially if there is a quiet Yorkshire farmer (Dick something?) bearing the loss of his prized animal stoically.

YY to Goodnight Mr Tom too.

Funny to note these are all children's books. It's curious that we encourage children to read such traumatic stuff!

The Power of One, Tandia and Whitethorn, all by Bryce Courtenay, had me sobbing.

Proper, heaving, can't catch your breath sobbing.

Little Women when Beth dies

Michael Rosen's Sad Book - is heartbreaking, it had me in tears (The title is a bit of a clue though!)

Oh God animal stories really get to me, so many of those already mentioned:

Watership Down - not helped by childhood film watching and Bright Eyes, but in the book Hazel getting shot, the Black Rabbit story, Bigwig's "last stand" and the ending all set me off.

His Dark Materials - them leaving their daemons (not really animals but it was close enough) at the riverbank and then the ending, which at least involved people!

Lots of bits in James Herriot - pretty much everytime an animal was suffering or died. (why was I reading stories written by a vet again?)

Black Beauty and Warhorse too for reasons previously sobbed about by everyone else.

No kids of my own to read too yet, but just the Amazon summary/reviews of Goodbye Mog has me sniffing and wiping my eyes at my desk, so that's not going on the reading list!

Goodnight Mr Tom is just unbearable. I weep at all war books. So yes, Birdsong, Atonement etc, etc.

Couldn't read Suite Francaise through the tears.

We read Goodnight Mr Tom at school (last year of Juniors - Yr 6 in today's terms I suppose). I embarrassing myself horribly reading a part aloud to the class... I properly broke down crying. In front of a class of 10 year olds. I never did quite live that down

I cry at 'Black Beauty' too. I watched the movie version with DS, who passed me tissues at intervals and smirked at me. He gave me a hug afterwards and said 'You're a bit of a delicate soul, aren't you Mum?' (He's 6 fgs)

But the last book that made me cry uncontrollably was Sebastian Faulks 'Birdsong'. I was on the tube at the time. Proper snotty, gulpy crying in front of a packed carriage of about 50 total strangers...

Nope! I always cry at animal books.

I had to confiscate Black Beauty because DD sobbed uncontrollably to the point when she couldn't breathe but kept trying to read it again. I hid it. Ditto when some kind soul gave them a DVD of the film.

About 6 years ago dad got hold of a copy of Ring of Bright Water and decided to let my eldest 2 watch it after he'd picked them up from school. After all they loved otters . I arrived to a houseful of sobbing, traumatised children. Dad had forgotten about the bit with the ditch and the spade.....

Little Jo's death in Dickens's Bleak House as he falteringly repeats the Lord's Prayer has me in tears every time.

The end of Middlemarch:

Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

But the one that always gets me, even thinking about it, is The Railway Children

'My daddy! my daddy'

Goodnight Mr Tom.Just about all of it.

I knew this would be about Black Beauty! sets me off every time.

Also Warhorse, The Lovely Bones, and the final Harry Potter book, when Harry is looking at Snape's memories. Actually, looking at my book shelf, there are a lot of books that set me off, I am clearly an utter feebo!

Requiem for a Wren by Neville Shute. I read this aged 14 and sobbed on my mum for ages! I've re-read it many times and have always cried. Quite a few of his books make me cry actually (The Rainbow and The Rose, On The Beach).

I cried when Sirius died in HP. & when Dumbledore died, & when Dobby died.
I'm a right soppy sod anyway though.

Ahh sorry this is in adult fiction

I get a Really scratchy voice when I read peepo

Ahem

Yes, the end of his dark materials made me and DH cry.

The last HP a bit, but I his DM is much more grown up and the characters more developed.

The part in Rilla of Avonlea where Jem's reunited with Little Dog Monday.

Had me sobbing on the tube.

I cried at Harry Potter too, particularly when Hedwig died.

-- - the end of Harry Potter when his parents come and talk to him and walk with him when he is going to Voldemort who he knows will kill him.

and when hedwig died

I cried when Cedric Diggory died. Not in the film, but in the book when dumbledore is talking about him.

To read aloud:
The end of Danny The Champion of The World.
The end of Little House in the Big Woods

I cry in Behind the Scenes at the Museum, when she talks about putting her sisters in the Lost Property Cupboard of Life, and also at 'I am the goose girl, I am the true bride, I am Ruby Lennox still'.

DP always got misty at a book by Quentin Blake called 'The Green Ship' - anyone know it? I can make him go just by saying 'and Mrs Tredegar doesn't seem to mind....'