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

The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren. And Ludo and the Star Horse by Mary Stewart.
Get me every time, I still read them to myself every so often. The DCs are all too old now to need bedtime stories (although my youngest and I sneak a book or two with us when we go camping, and take turns reading aloud to each other )

The Little Refugee by Anh Do, about a Vietnamese refugee boy coming to Australia. Brilliant book. His parents are SO proud when he gets a certificate at school. It’s such an amazing book about adversity and courage. Tears every time.

Blueberry Girl

Astrid Lindgren books. They made me cry so much. Some are heartbreaking

Another vote for Paper Dolls!

The last line of Winnie the Pooh just flaws me every time - ‘but wherever they go and whatever happens to them along the way, in that enchanted place on top of the forest a little boy and his bear will always be playing.’

It’s brought a lump to my throat just typing it!

"Daddy, oh my daddy" has never failed to get the tears streaming since I first read it again after my daddy died. Roberta had been so stoic all the way through.

I'd better dry my eyes and blow my nose now.

The Robot and the Bluebird

I couldn't finish reading it too the DC's I was sobbing so much, came down stairs in hysterics and handed it to a v bemused DH to finish. DS then read it to a grandparent helper at school and she did the same. DH had to hide the book as just the cover would set me off

'love you forever' can't even think of that without tearing up "as long as I'm living my baby you'll be".
And yes coodlemoodle 'Goodbye Mog' as yet l can't even contemplate!
Recently it was the animated 'Going on a Bear Hunt' he just was lonely and they ran away!!

In crying just thinking of"daddy my daddy" I was my dad's favourite and made me cry even before he died

Puff the magic Dragon, both the song and a picture book of it my kids had. I couldn't get through "he sadly slipped into his cave..."

Paperdolls- the granny and when the girl grows up to be a mummy 😭

When I'm a mummy like you

The sea saw, makes you realise how short life is 😭

Oscar Wilde's fairy tales, The Happy Prince and the Selfish Giant, so melancholic.
Old fairy tales (possibly collected by Bros Grimm), like The Wild Swans.
Tom's Midnight Garden.

Peepo and Dogger

Peepo because it reminds me of my grandfather and him being in WW1 and it's just so beautifully illustrated

Peepo. The last bit where he looks in the mirror with the rainbow rim and his dad kisses him all dressed up in his WW2 clothes and I just imagine him going out and getting blown up in the blitz. Literally get choked up ready the last two pages

I mean WW2

Goodbye Mog. The first time I read it to my niece it utterly broke me. I was ugly crying in front of a three year old. It was awful.

The Last Battle and The Magician's Nephew by CS Lewis (all the chronicles of Narnia but these two especially).

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett - the film makes me cry every time I watch it, the book too. So beautiful.

I’m another who didn’t buy or borrow Goodbye Mog for my children - couldn’t bear to do it to them (or to myself).

The Velvateen Rabbit
Goodbye Mog

Owl at home - Arnold Lobel

Goodnight mr Tom!

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

This. I loved that book enough to name my DD Hatty.

Puff the magic dragon. My dad used to sing it to my brother and I as children but now I have a little boy it brings a lump to my throat thinking about him only being so small and innocent for such a short time: ‘dragons live forever, but no so little boys’ 😓

The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson 😭