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Beautiful lines from children's books

243 replies

NettJarrp · 14/05/2017 21:37

Just came across this line in DD's current favourite bedtime story:
"Then Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh walked hand in hand down the forest path and they said goodbye. So they went off together. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the forest a little boy and his bear will always be playing."
I'm in tears. It's times like this that I wish that I could share these feelings with DD's father (I'm widowed - not a thread about that though).

What lines in children's stories pull at your heart strings?

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StealthPolarBear · 14/05/2017 22:19

Yes to giraffes can't dance too. Haven't read that in years. Think I will bore te dc with it tomorrow.

dementedma · 14/05/2017 22:20

When Grandma Came is a beautiful book about a travelling grandma who has seen amazing things and amazing places ,"but nothing as amazing as you".

StealthPolarBear · 14/05/2017 22:21

There's something lovely in cave baby too , can't remember it
Ds reads big nate now :(

WanderingTrolley1 · 14/05/2017 22:22

Peepo gives me a lump in the throat.

CryHavoc · 14/05/2017 22:22

The last lines from Winnie the Pooh were the first that came to mind when I saw the thread title. I can't read them aloud, I cry even thinking about them.

'Daddy, my daddy.' does it for me too. DH is in the forces, and spent four months abroad when our daughter was 3. The day he came home and knocked on the front door she bellowed 'It's my daddy!' I could barely manage to read The Railway Children before that, it's been impossible ever since.

ShinyGirl · 14/05/2017 22:23

Love these.

CaptainBrickbeard · 14/05/2017 22:23

I came on to quote the same section of No Matter What as Misti - I love that bit.

PanannyPanoo · 14/05/2017 22:23

"but the next baby born was truly divine,
a sweet little child that was mine all mine."

from 12 little fingers and 12 little toes.

I have had 9 pregnancies and have 2 living children. This line makes me sob. I am so lucky I get to keep these two.

notbobmarley · 14/05/2017 22:23

Dontrocktheboat I came to say that exact line but couldn't have put it as well you you. This thread is making me miss my littles all tucked up in bed.

ememem84 · 14/05/2017 22:24

Nothing to add but oh jeeez. Some of these are sad.

RightOnTheEdge · 14/05/2017 22:24

All the ones I was going to say have been already been mentioned
Oh the places you'll go is brilliant!
The paper dolls
Can't you sleep little bear?
And No Matter What.

"Oh Small" said Big "I'm not that clever. All I know is I'll love you forever"

It makes me tear up a bit just thinking about it.

I always end up blubbing reading these threads!

Gwencooper81 · 14/05/2017 22:26

DD's class sang a song based on 'The snail and the whale'. I sobbed and sobbed all through the performance!
I can't read it now without tearing up.
The passage above from Tom's Midnight garden is my favorite.
Blubbing like a baby now!

StealthPolarBear · 14/05/2017 22:27

I think I bought paper dolls for a younger relative , ds and dd were too big for it :(

CryHavoc · 14/05/2017 22:28

Also, I've been reading Carrie's War with DD at bedtimes. I thought I knew it inside out from reading when I was a kid, but there's a bit where Carrie and Nick's mum thanks Auntie Lou for looking after them that made me sob. It's very different from a parent's point of view.

Sweetooth92 · 14/05/2017 22:29

Saw the title and was coming to suggest "no matter what" debi Gilori but see I've been beaten too it. My husbands daughter (7 at the time) read the full story as one of our readings at our wedding in the and still can't read it without tearing up.

NettJarrp · 14/05/2017 22:31

Thanks for sharing all of these breathtaking lines, everyone. I had to stop reading for a while, and then my eyes were too wet to read anyway!

Yes, I'm fine, thank you for asking. I just feel very lonely sometimes and I'm very grateful to chat to you all about such emotional and beautiful pieces of writing.

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rainbowgiraffe · 14/05/2017 22:31

Last page of 'Guess how much I love you '

"Then he lay down close by
And whispered with a smile,
I love you right up to the moon-
And back"

Makes me sob like a baby every time.

AllThePrettySeahorses · 14/05/2017 22:32

In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf ...

All of Peepo.

I spy ... Everyone! from Each Peach Pear Plum

Shirley Hughes' Colours and Noises

MarzipanPiggy · 14/05/2017 22:32

Came on to quote the paper dolls but see others have beaten me to it. So beautiful Sad

My favourite Winnie the Pooh quote:

Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, while we were underneath it?
Supposing it didn't, said Pooh, after careful thought.
Piglet was comforted by this.

Oh and, of all unlikely things, Doc McStuffins can make me cry with this song:

When the one that you love is so far away
No matter what it will be okay
All I have to do
When I'm feeling blue
Close my eyes and picture you

2ducks2ducklings · 14/05/2017 22:34

There are hundreds in Winnie the Pooh.
'How you you spell love?'
'You don't spell love, you feel it'.

thunderbrat · 14/05/2017 22:35

Pretty much the whole of Lovely Old Rocky by Michael Rosen. "'I think it's time,' said Mum. We love you, Roly." And that Railway Children line... yes.

AllThePrettySeahorses · 14/05/2017 22:35

PanannyPanoo - yeah, that one too! Flowers cos you got to plant three little kisses on the tips of their noses

thunderbrat · 14/05/2017 22:35

Roly. Not Rocky. Autocorrect...

okilydokily · 14/05/2017 22:38

Just Like You, by Jan Fearnley. It's about Little Mouse and Mama Mouse walking home one evening, and they see various animal parents putting their babies to bed, and when Little Mouse sees what they do for their little ones (digging deep burrows, diving for fish, jumping to catch bugs to eat, etc), he says how special those babies must be. Mama Mouse always tells Little Mouse "Yes, just like you". But by the end Little Mouse is feeling increasingly less special, and is wondering what his mum, a little mouse, could possibly do to match up to all of that. Mama Mouse says: "...even a little mouse can do quite a few things. Let me see..... I'll tell you stories to make you smile. I'll find you nice things to nibble on. I'll play with you and make you laugh. I'll hug you and keep you safe and......when you're naughty I promise I'll be very, very cross with you! But most of all, I promise I will always love you and care for you. And I'll do it with all of my heart".

Oh, bloody hell, I'm off again!! I can't read it to the kids anymore. I just end up blubbering.

SomePig · 14/05/2017 22:42

Another who can't read the ending of Paper Dolls without welling up. We went as a family to see a puppet version of it & both DH & I were weeping at the end.

Also the last page of Where the Wild Things are: "where he found his dinner waiting for him, and it was still hot."

And the end of There's Going to Be A Baby: "we're going to love the baby, won't we?" with the beautiful illustration of the little boy walking towards his mother's hospital room.

Oh dear, weeping now ...