Children’s books that make you cry

[BikeRunSki]

When DD (now 6) was younger I could never finish The Paper Dolls without shedding a tear.

Tonight, we’be just finished the Sophie series (Dick King-Smith). The last 2 or 3 chapters had me crying my eyes out. DD was “but Mummy, it’s only a book’”.

[yikesanotherbooboo]

What a lot of memories .
I could hardly cope with Mog and the Bunny , never mind Mog's demise. Judith Kerr and Shirley Hughes keep getting mentioned. As writer illustrators the words and pictures are completely integrated and the subj ct matter is so relatable for families. They are geniuses I think.i totally agree about Peepo too.
I was a bookworm as a child but made a decision quite early on never to read 'animal 'books. This was not through a lack of interest in natural history but to avoid putting myself through what seemed to be the inevitable death of the beloved animal at the end, see Black Beauty, Ring of Bright Water etc.
I had to steel myself to avoid passing on my prejudices to the DC but they are made of sterner stuff.

[Frequency]

I used to love The Little Match Girl when I was young and my mum would always refuse to read it to me. I never did understand why, until I bought it for my first child. In my head, the little match girl went to live with the family with the turkey and was happy

The velveteen rabbit, I remember being traumatised by but not the entire story (she was ill, rabbit helped her through but was tainted and had to be destroyed?) I do know I was never inclined to buy it as per The Little Match Girl.

Goodbye Mog, I bought on MN's suggestion when my family dog was dying, to help explain it to the children. And boy, was that a mistake. It arrived the day after I had to take her to be put to sleep because my parent's couldn't face it. I used it, before reading it, to explain Bessie had gone to heaven. We were traumatised for months!

[Latenightreader]

I refused to have The Happy Prince in my room when I was small and The Little Match Girl reduced me to howls every time.

These days Marilla and Anne after Matthew's death in Anne of Green Gables, and not so much the death in Rilla but Monday greating Jem at the station.

The third book in Judith Kerr's trilogy A Small Person Far Away. Anna and her brother go to an exhibition about her late father and are caught unawares by a lifesized photo of him.

[BitOfFun]

Carrie's War makes me howl.

[UnRavellingFast]

The Mousehole Cat - first read as adult and sobbed my eyes out.

Jenny by Paul Gallico- read as 10yo and was so devastated I cried for weeks on and off, pretty sure my dm was kicking herself for recommending to me!

Guess How Much I love You - my dcs used to ask for it just to see me cry.

Dogger, beautiful

[SmallBlondeMama]

*Oops I meant Love You Forever!

[SmallBlondeMama]

As a follow up to my previous post -> the real story behind Live You Forever 💔

www.google.ca/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_573ceb97e4b0aee7b8e8f76f/amp

[Dermymc]

On the night you were born 😭😭

[SmallBlondeMama]

Love You Forever .. I had to bury it in the back of my sons closet because it is tooo sad!! The real story behind the book is so sad as well :(

[mathanxiety]

*'Where the Red Fern Grows', not Grown

[mathanxiety]

I also weep at the poem by William Butler Yeats 'A Prayer for my Daughter'.

[mathanxiety]

Buckbeak, it's 'Love You Forever' by Robert Munsch. Makes me cry too.

'The Velveteen Rabbit'.
'Black Beauty'.
'A Little Princess'.

'We Found a Hat,' Jon Klassen

'Love That Dog' and
'Hate That Cat'.
Both by Sharon Creech.

'The Tiger Rising' and
'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane'.
Both by Kate diCamillo.

'Someday', Allison Meghee and Peter Reynolds.

'Let Me Hold You Longer', Karen Kingsbury.

'Jacob I Have Loved', Katherine Paterson.

'Where the Red Fern Grown', Wilson Rawls. I worried about letting my DCs read this because it is so sad.

Many Hans Christian Anderson stories.

[Flaskfan]

My kids were also unmoved by Charlotte's web. I had to stop playing puff the magic Dragon though, as 5 yr old Dd sobbed his heart out for nights at a time.

[DaisyGiveMeYourAnswerDoo]

.

[2cutiepies]

Owl babies
Mr Stink

[Taytotots]

Another vote for Charlotte's web. My children remained completely dry eyes though monsters!
And yes also to Goodbye Mog.

[BreconBeBuggered]

I found DS1's copy of Goodnight Mister Tom when I was looking for something to read in the bath, and thought Oooh, haven't read this one. Hadn't seen the TV adaptation either so it was entirely new to me. Christ, but I sobbed my bloody heart out.

[tiggersneverdie]

Sorry buckbeak just realised my comment on Love You Forever is probably shockingly rude. I mean no offence, I just found that book to be more WTF creepy than really moving.

[tiggersneverdie]

Just remembered a book by Raymond Briggs called Grandpa. Very moving.

[tiggersneverdie]

Missed out on reading the Velveteen Rabbit as a child so read it as an adult in the library one day. Very embarassing but the tears were sliding down my cheeks and a lump in my throat.

The first chapter of Michael Bond's Olga Carries On, when Olga's babies have been taken to new homes and she is sitting in an empty hutch. Of course, anything about guinea pig babies reduces me to mush anyway.

[tiggersneverdie]

Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse by Ursula Moray-Williams made me cry as a kid

buckbeak Love You Forever I think it is called. Cannot remember the authour. I often think of it as The Creepy Stalker Mother's Handbook. That bit where she climbs through the window of her adult son's room!

[bookworm14]

Happy to help!

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

Thank you @bookworm14 I've just read the synopsis and that's it! I think I may re purchase that one.

[bookworm14]

Ooh, and the end of Tom's Midnight Garden!

One that makes me well up for reasons I don't fully understand is the page in Peepo by Allan Alhberg when the baby sees his family in the mirror ('A mother with a baby, just like him'). It's something about the sadness of the passage of time and the end of childhood, I think.

[bookworm14]

@nifflerbowtruckle A long way back in the thread by now, but your mystery book is Dawn of Fear by Susan Cooper.