The Snail and the Whale... sniff

[BlueRaincoat1]

I have a 4 yr old and a 19 month old. DH bought the Snail and the Whale in the supermarket the other day, we have a few Julia Donaldson books but I'd never read this one before.
Was busy reading it to the 19 month old, I was liking the nice flowing rhymes, when it got to the bit about the Snail saving the Whale- I had to stop for about 30 seconds to compose myself. Wtf? And then I stayed pretty choked up til the end. And the exact same thing happened when I read it again.
Please tell me I'm not alone - does anyone else find this book emotional? It's taken me very by surprise, the Gruffalo and A Squash and a Squeeze don't have this affect!

I absolutely love this book, as do my 2 DC's😍

Paper dolls is bad, I can’t read it for sobbing. Honestly though I’m an emotional wreck most of the time. Any kind of school assembly / nativity play etc I’m a bawling mess and I was nearly in tears listening to DD’s friend yesterday earnestly practicing her brownie promise for next week!
I’m not brave enough to read goodbye mog at all.... let alone to DD

As the mum of an almost not little any more boy with a wonderful imagination, Puff the magic dragon slays me every time. In fact I am crying now just thinking of it!

@DappledThings I thought exactly the same about Guess How Much I Love You!

Been thinking about this thread: OP do not let the risk of feeling deep and blubbing put you off. The books mentioned are smash hits for a reason and as tearful as they make us, they are happy tears.

Anyway: patronising public service announcement over

I saw the TV adaptation of Stick Man before I read the book and my hatred of Martin Freeman meant I was flint hearted throughout. Typical man, doing his hobby and leaving the wife to look after the three kids.

@EstebanTheMagnificent ooh I love Oliver Jeffers. Have you seen his recent book 'Here We Are'? He wrote it when his son was born and it is truly lovely, the illustrations are wonderful. Brought a tear to my eye.

@VenusClapTrap Glad I'm not the only one. The father is just so competitive and awful.

I did once reconnect with an old colleague on Facebook after years because she posted asking if anyone else found it irritating and creepy and we had a nice exchange. So it served one purpose!

I got The Heart and the Bottle a few years ago from the library. It's so meaningful
So deep for a children's book

OMG Paper Dolls!

The "I'll love you forever" book reminds me of Joey reading it on Friends as a last minute gift for Emma 😂

I don't really like the Snail and the Whale I am not a sea person though!

Just to clarify, there is 'Love You Forever' and 'I will love you forever." We have the latter (never heard of the former) and this also makes me weepy.

I took DD to see a theatre adaptation of the Snail and the Whale, it was interwoven with the story of a dad, telling the story to his little girl before he went away to see, and then latterly in letters about his adventures. And at the end you (if you're not 2) slowly realise the dad NEVER CAME BACK FROM SEA. I was a mess.

Same happened to me the first time I read it and i love the animated version they showed over christmas narrated by diana rigg. Her delivery of the lines are beautiful

@Helpwithdilemma101 Yes! It's beautiful. It's my go-to gift for new babies at the moment.

@RightOnTheEdge - I'm the same. Dc is now a teen and I am almost 50 and I have welled up in work with tears streaming down my face just reading this thread! I think it has to be peri-menopause hormones causing havoc as I am really tearful over virtually nothing - a song on the radio, a poem etc These things never had that power over me before. It's like I have become super sensitive to them now.

We read a huge amount to dd until she stopped wanting us to - she was about 10 at that stage, so we covered a lot of ground books wise. We loved most of the ones mentioned here.

@SuperDuperJezebel I started reading your post thinking "oh I'd love to take my kids to that" and then by the end I realised I never want to see it ever. I'd be a sobbing wreck!

I was ok with Stick Man until I read the book Fierce Bad Rabbits which is about children’s picture books through the ages. Then I found out she wrote it after her son killed himself due to severe mental health problems and part of the frantic nature of him trying to get back home and no one listening to him reflects some of the turmoil someone in that position can be feeling.

I’ve never needed a reason to snivel through Peepo! and Where Have All The Dragons Gone? though.

Love you forever always gets me, I can't even read the first page.

I'm glad in not the only one who find the snail and the whale and paper dolls upsetting. Both came in a Julia Donaldson collection and the first time I read paper dolls it completely caught me guard while DSD was present, was a bit embarrassing to say the least. I made sure to pre-read all new books alone from that point.

Did anyone find monkey puzzle got them a bit teary? I don't know why but the bit where butterfly's babies don't look like him/her did for some reason

I was really affected by the bit in Harry and the dinosaurs where they go to the railway list and found and he calls out all their names to prove that they are his.
Bizarrely only the first time though, the subsequent 4700 times haven't bothered me at all!

AnneShirley The Little Matchgirl has me proper snotty sobbing. My pickle of a DD always chose that story for me to read her at bedtime as she liked seeing my reaction.

Della The Velveteen Rabbit also does the same as The Little Matchgirl and I am a snotty mess.

No way am I reading Paper Dolls and I still have The Snail and the Whale from Christmas unwatched and now think I will give it a miss. Weirdly the school I work at had it playing one wet playtime but thankfully I was busy doing something else or that could have been very embarrassing.

I well up properly at Dogger too - "Then Bella did a very kind thing" [sob] - and I stupidly read Goodbye Mog at our local library and had to pretend I could hear my phone ringing so as to stop reading and compose myself.

I am a nightmare. DD and DH find it endearing but I think it is crippling to be so damn sensitive

The Fairytale Forest in Efteling in the Netherlands has a version of The Little Match Girl. It is just 1950s animatronics and a Pepper's ghost trick but it is unbelievably moving. I was in bits in the middle of a theme park.

@HerRoyalCarbyLess
I'm glad it's not just me! My colleague used to watch me read it and then would be 'argh, there she goes!' as I welled up.

Love You Forever kills me. When DS1 was tiny someone bought us a copy and I popped it on a shelf, forgot about it til he was about 2. He used to bring it to me every night and make me read it as his bedtime story despite it breaking me every single time. I've never hardened my heart to it and DS1 is 14 now and still knows it by heart. He whispers it to me just to ruin me when he's being terrible.

DS2 is 13 with ASD and currently adores this - and stick man and Zog. I think he's pretty much memorised all of them.

This is the snail with an itchy foot.... (he stands on one leg and scratches his own foot, when he tells me this line)