Great

[cymruoddicatref]

We love a good "weepie" in our house and I am fascinated by the special skill and craft required to reduce a child to tears with words alone - especially as they start to become slightly more cynical and "knowing". I can offer three books that have produced tears in our house - the brilliantly understated Bridge to Terebithia" by Katherine Paterson (made into a truly horrendous film), Morris gleitzman's "then" trilogy, and a surprise contender from my (then) 10 year old "is anybody there ?" by jostein gardner. Notably failures have been Michael morpurgo - private peaceful (verdict- (too many bad things happen - just too silly), boy in striped pyjamas (surprise failure- probably because too widely read by peers to be cool) and philippa pearce "a dog so small.". My girls are 14 and 11. Any more suggestions?

Are they too old for Charlotte's Web? I'm pretty sure this was the first book I ever read when one of the main characters actually dies... that got to me (aged about 10) I was used to books being 'happily ever after' before that point!

The end of The Secret Garden, when Colin goes to his father on his own two feet made me well up too.

More recent books, I recommend this one. The ending isn't a surprise, because they're upfront about it at the beginning, but, after all that liveliness shown in the course of the book and when you've got to know Sam...

Ways To Live Forever by Sally Nicholls

"My name is Sam. I am eleven years old. I collect stories and fantastic facts. By the time you read this, I will probably be dead."

Sam loves facts. He wants to know about UFOs and horror movies and airships and ghosts and scientists, and how it feels to kiss a girl. And because he has leukaemia he wants to know the facts about dying. Sam needs answers to the questions nobody will answer. WAYS TO LIVE FOREVER is the first novel from an extraordinarily talented young writer. Funny and honest, it is one of the most powerful and uplifting books you will ever read

Too young for your dds, but I would have to nominate the scene in By the Shores of Silver Lake where Laura's dog Jack dies (reduced both dd and me to tears), and (dd only) A Little Princess.

Wow I shall have to have tissues at the ready (for me too, by the sounds of it) for the Sally nicholls suggestion. Thanks for that!

Bridge to Terebithia is an amazing book. I admit I bought it having seen just the trailer for the film (which I have still never actually seen all through), and launched straight into reading it to ds. He was then about 8, and still enjoying a nightly chapter read to him, even though he was also reading to himself. And I made the most of the chance it gave me to stretch his horizons a bit...

Normally I read any new book to myself, before launching into it with DS. This time, I was reading just a chapter or so ahead. So I knew the death was coming, but it was too late to duck out of reading that chapter aloud to ds. We were both sobbing. He insisted I read it through to the end of the book though, and then took it away to reread to himself.

It wasn't by any stretch of the imagination an easy read, but it was one of the more worthwhile ones. Funny how childrens books seem to have come full circle in that respect. Victorian childrens books revelled in a good death scene, whereas when I was a child (in the dim and distant '60s) the subject was taboo!

The Book Thief is wonderful and made us all cry. Also When You Reach Me made my daughter thoughtful and weepy. It didn't have that effect on me but It is a great book.

'Dog' by Daniel Pennac and a new find called 'My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece'. Both fab, with a box of tissues essential!

I would agree with Bridge to Terabithia (and though it could have been slightly better, I did enjoy the film version).

I would suggest - Charlotte's Web
By the Shores of Silver Lake (Laura's dog dying - but you would have to read the preceding books to build up the relationship with the dog).
If you have read Is anybody There? by Jostein Gaarder, then definitely read Through a Glass, Darkly by the same author. I dare you to read it aloud and not crumble in the last few pages.

The Happy Prince - Oscar Wilde (in this and the Gaarder, it would make a difference if you were someone with a faith background).

Also various points in the Narnia stories - Aslan's death and the girls' vigil; Reepicheep's farewell; and especially in the final book, the ending of things.

Philip Pullman - the scene with Lee Scoresby in Alamo Gulch in The Subtle Knife; the ending of the final book The Amber Spyglass.

The Little Prince - St Exupery.

For older children - aged 13+ - I would suggest Before I Die by Jenny Downham, and This Is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn by Aidan Chambers.

Re the film version of terebithia, I just hated the way they tackled the imaginary kingdom. In the book, it's a wonderful place where the two children can develop their relationship - but the children readily acknowledge that they are pretending about the "kingdom" etc. Then in the film, as I remember it, they introduced all kinds of weird things in the place where the kingdom was - bizarre treatment of trees, birds etc which I found intrusive and irritating and which obscured the story's power and subtlety. Not sure quite what they were trying to achieve. I don't usually get bothered by film versions of books but that one really annoyed me.

Charlotte sometimes. Read it years ago. Found it in charity shop a few months ago. Still cried.
Dead poets society (film is my fave weepie, but remember book having sim effect)
Good wives where Beth dies