Which children's stories provoke emotion in you?

[HalyardHitch]

The first time I read the snail and the whale to my two year old, I cried.

The one year old went down quickly tonight so I've just sat in my bedroom listening to Dh read it to the two year old. Again, tears.

Something about how such a tiny snail puts such effort into saving his friend. He's just a little snail but he cares about his friend and found a way.

Also heartwarming to hear my dyslexic Dh, who hates reading out loud, to read to my eldest ds

Another vote for Paper Dolls. I'm not particularly keen on it but it made my (not usually soppy) DH cry when he read it when DC were littler and now I always see it through his eyes and read it differently.

For me The Fantastic Flying Journey by Gerald Durrell. It was my absolute absolute favourite as a child and reading it to my own children and feeling all the feels really choked me up.

Charlotte’s Webb
gobbolino the witches cat
Goodnight Mister Tom
Coming Home - Michael Morpurgo
Can you Catch a Mermaid - Jane Ray
Dogger

I'm a year 1 teacher and struggle through many of these books. I have to get a grip as my TA looks at me in disbelief. I think it's being a mother and being menopausal and knowing how loved these 30 kids are. Adding to those mentioned Once there were giants gets to me too.

Someone mentioned "on a musical note"
For me 'batman, superman, spiderman" makes me so emotional. My son was born with that song in the background.

I also cried at the ending to gangsta granny when I was reading it with a kid I taught

I dont get to do many bedtime stories with my kids. I work evenings and neither of them are massively bothered about day time reading. I wont admit to my husband that I sometimes sit and listen to him read to them though

The end of Tom's Midnight Garden, when he hugs the old lady Hatty, "as if she were a little girl. "

The Velveteen Rabbit. Had the bit about becoming real for one of our wedding readings.

Dogger. My middle son had a toy dog he was devoted to and it got lost.

Paper Dolls. My son handed it to me to read to my granddaughter when I was staying there. Little git!

Lots!

Goodnight mr Tom.

Anything with a strong sense of injustice or people not being believed.

Forgot one ‘I love you little monster’ I just can’t.
My son loves it and the ‘my beautiful wonderful glorious child, you light up my world’ page has me literally gasping

Love You Forever - Robert Munsch

My mom read it to my brothers and I as children, and even then it was so sad but beautiful.

On the night you were born.

We bought it for my Ds1’s first birthday. I couldn’t get through it without sobbing

Forgot one ‘I love you little monster’ I just can’t.
My son loves it and the ‘my beautiful wonderful glorious child, you light up my world’ page has me literally gasping

Just googled this, now I'm crying!!

The secret garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett . Being lonely, an underdog due to society and a freedom fighter- the main character resonates with me.

Charlie and the chocolate factory by Roald Dahl - the poverty and humility of Charlie Bucket, it humbles me and reminds me not to buy too much for the DC.

“No matter what”. There was a quote from the end in my Dad’s order of service at his funeral, together with a photo of him and DD, they adored each other

“On the night you were born”

“Oh, the places you’ll go”

The giving tree. One of my friends bought it for me when DD was born and I cry every time I read it.

The boy in the striped pyjamas 😭

Peepo chokes me up on the last page every time.

Harry/dinosaurs when grandma isn’t there all of a sudden. She’s in hospital but when I read it first I thought she might have died and got really upset.

I was also here to say snail and the whale. "I feel so small"!!!!..... Also the Grinch. Many a wobbly voiced reading of this to the DCs.

Karwomannghia I read that to a class without reading through it first....thought please don’t let her be dead!!!

Peepo
Nothing, by Mick Inkpen
For older children,
Tom’s Midnight Garden
The Secret Garden - Mary is so lost and unhappy and unpleasant. I find it sadder now when I read it, the circumstances she finds herself in and the matter of fact way the adults around her just expect her to cope.

You're all my favourites - Sam McBratney
The Ugly Five - Julia Donaldson

Peepo, when I get to the page "he sees the landing mirror with its rainbow rim, and a mother with a baby just like him". I don't know why it's that page specifically but all of my children have been surprised to see mummy burst into tears at that point

All the illustrations in that book remind me of my gran's house; there may be something in that.

Agree with Goodnight Mister Tom. I remember my mother reading it to us and she couldn't see the words on the page because she was crying so much.

All the Anna Hibiscus books too. We have only recently discovered them - they are wonderful. So beautifully written and they deal with difficult issues so very well. My children and I love them but I've cried reading every single book.

The Silver Sword. When I read it to my children I really struggled with the last couple of chapters. Something about the children’s happy ending just gets to me.

And I can’t even read the title of The Railway Children without welling up. I’m already going at the thought of ‘Daddy’.

Weasels I agree, that bit is so pure and simple. I can’t describe why, but it is definitely tear jerking!

Another vote for no matter what,
We had it as the reading for our wedding a few years ago and i loved it then,
Now reading it to little DS fills me with tears every time 😂