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’”.

[CapnCabinet]

Another vote for I Am David. There's a scene in it where one character acts so selflessly. And David is so innocent and unaware of the motivations of others, despite where he has escaped from.

[wanderings]

The Happy Prince, Snow White. In both cases, the Ladybird editions - although they were simplified for children, they were extremely poignant, especially with the classical music on the tapes that went with them. "Two boys were under a bridge, huddled together to keep warm. A policeman saw them, and told them to go home. He did not know that they had no home to go to. They just went out, hand in hand, into the rain..."

Another vote for I am David. I had to read it at school aged 11, and it left me cold, but I read it again aged 19 and was deeply moved.

[BikeRunSki]

Oh God. Mr Tom. Read it when I was about 12-13 and about 30. Retrieved my copy from my mum’s house for DS. I’m nit sure i’ll Be brave enough to read it to him. It’s a beautiful film too.

[Pancakeflipper]

Goodnight Mr Tom
Bubble Boy.

[Bonkersblond]

DD and I about a third of the way through Wonder and we shed a tear tonight.

[Gunpowder]

I bought ‘I’ll love you forever’ after reading one of these threads and I think it is a bit creepy TBH. That mum doesn’t know when to stop!

[VelvetGreen]

The Little Prince. I try to tell myself that it's allegorical but it doesn't help - I still howl every time.

[SadSongsAndWaltzes]

Oh so many!
I came on to say Paper Dolls too! Also Oh, The Places You'll Go, and Rosie Revere, Engineer.
I'm sure there are loads more. I do cry an awful lot though. I'm the only person I know to have cried at the Full Monty.

[bringonyourwreckingball]

Dogger. It made my BIL cry when he was a boy and I have the most lovely photo of him reading it to my dd1 when she was tiny. Also Goodbye Mog and Library Lion which is a wonderful book I highly recommend.

[SharesinClarks]

Badger's parting gifts.

[strawberrypenguin]

Dogger
The Velveteen Rabbit
Goodnight Mister Tom

[SuperPug]

Oh, Dogger. That awful moment when Dogger is bought by another child and his sister gets it back.
Goodnight Mr Tom was the first book I read that didn't glorify families or childhood, if that makes any sense.

[sourpatchkid]

"The wonderful Things you will be"
-a 1st birthday present for DS. We've read it every night since then and it's only now (he's 16 months) that DH and I have stopped blubbering at some point in the story! 🙄

I hadn't predicted this part of parenting ...

[wanderings]

@purpleme12 I remember Red Sky in the Morning. I think of Mumsnet when I remember the line: "I didn't mind the children who said 'look at that baby's big head'. I did mind the mums who hissed 'shhhhhh!' "

And an obscure one: King Oak of Sevenoaks, which tells the story of the seven oaks, six of which were uprooted one by one in the great storm of 1987. King Oak is the only one which survives, and sobs and howls for the others; and when saplings are planted to replace the first six, these are vandalised.

[Missingthesea]

The Railway Children
Goodbye Mog
Goodnight Mr Tom
The Last Battle.

Oh, and the bit in Anne of Green Gables when Matthew dies!

[mumsy2015]

On the night you were born for me too. I have been reading it to my daughter for 6 years now and still struggle to get through the end without blubbing. It totally summed up how i felt when she was born.

[purpleme12]

Oooh someone who knows Badger's Parting Gifts! I've got a very dog eared copy of this from when I was little! Will be reading it my child when she's a bit older.

[3girlsmama]

The heart and the bottle by Oliver Jeffers, read it to my eldest when she was a toddler and not long after FIL died, I could not get through it without tears.

[purpleme12]

Oooh brilliant someone else who remembers my book! No one knows of my books lol

[Youranus]

Morpurgos Butterfly Lion.

[StringandGlitter]

Bridge to Terabithia

The day the sea went out and never came back

[onemouseplace]

The Children of Green Knowe when Tolly’s finds out what happened to the children. It’s such a beautiful book without being scary or creepy at all.

[onemouseplace]

Missingthesea I thought of the Anne books as well - although the bit that always gets me is when Captain Jim crosses the bar in Anne’s House of Dreams.

And actually, re-reading as an adult I was floored when she loses her baby, which I never picked up on in the same way as a child.

[SchnitzelVonKrumm]

The Velveteen Rabbit makes me AND my children cry. The Story of Holly and Ivy: "I told you it was a story about wishing".

[Nifflerbowtruckle]

Does anyone know the name of this book? It's a children's book about children in the war. The kids have dens and go searching for shrapnel and play and they talk about the bomb shelters they have. One of the families has one inside under the kitchen table so they don't have to go outside every night and one night they receive a direct hit and the boy who the story is about is devastated as his friend has died. That makes little sense .