Beautiful lines from children's books

[NettJarrp]

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?

From the first book that made me weep my eyes out as I read it with my mum, the happy prince. 😭😭😭 I must have been about 6 or 7 and I can still remember the pure sadness I felt!

"Sid's dad said "come, fly then, Sid" and that's exactly what Sid did." Some Dogs do - it breaks my heart to see Sid's joy being crushed.

Almost most all of "I Love you Little Monster" but especially "You're everything I always dreamed of, you've got so much beauty inside, the way that you smile, that you laugh, that you dance makes my heart want to sing out with pride." and "my beautiful, wonderful, glorious child you light up my world Big then said".

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
"Pooh!" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you.

I know there's been a lot of Winnie the Pooh but I do love this one

The Selfish Giant - beautiful story, I recently read it to DS for the first time and promptly burst into tears:
' And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, 'You let me play once in your garden, today you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.'
And when the children ran in that afternoon, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms.'

Love 'Oh, the places you'll go', it's brilliant.
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

And I always tear up when reading 'Wherever you are' by Nancy Tillman, esp this one: '"I wanted you more than you ever will know,
so I sent love to follow wherever you go." DD is a rainbow baby after numerous miscarriages, and this line sums it up, really.

There's a lovely book called in the middle of the night that talks about someone dying and a baby being born as well as all the other things happening. The juxtaposition of a new life and the end of one has me sobbing every time. In fact DD says its best if just her dad reads that one.

"Sleep, little baby,
who knows what you've seen
or what worlds you dream of,
so small and new born."

from "New Born"

Though it's the pictures that really make the book - that line always gets me. New babies are such a mystery and a wonder.

I thought this would be a cheery thread...

The final line of Peter Pan ( the JM Barrie original).

Oh, The Places You'll Go is just gorgeous. "The Waiting Place" part gets me.

Other lines I love that aren't so emotional but just as wonderful - "I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship" from Little Women

"The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it" from Peter Pan

"Of course it is happening inside your head Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" from HP & the Deathly Hallows

"Eddie doesn't say anything because Eddie isn't here anymore" from Michael Rosen's Sad Book.

This Nancy Tillman book gets me every time....

"If you’re still my small babe
or you’re all the way grown,
my promise to you
is you’re never alone.

You are my angel, my darling,
my star…and my love will find you,
wherever you are."

The book is "Wherever you Go My Love Will Find You" by the way I forgot the title

Here is my other favourite bit from it....

"And if someday you’re lonely,
or someday you’re sad,
or you strike out at baseball,
or think you’ve been bad…

just lift up your face, feel the wind in your hair.
That’s me, my sweet baby, my love is right there."
hits me right in the heart places

That last page or two of On the Night You Were Born, that @KavvLar quoted. Every time I try and read it to my dd my voice is breaking with sobs by the end, it's so beautiful!

"David. My son David"
From "I am David' by Ann Holme. I remember it being read to me in Junior school and I loved it. I read it to.my boys when they were younger and sobbed my eyes our as we got towards the end.

"She touched the medal and talked sadly of the big brother she had loved who had gone to the war and never returned." from Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge.

"He sees a landing mirror with its rainbow rim. And a mother with a baby just like him." Peepo. It's not even sad but it always brought a lump to my throat when my DD's were wee.

'Across the ocean, in a city where tall buildings stretched to the sky, Amy woke and came sleepily to breakfast. "I had a lovely dream," she said." I dreamt about Louis and he called me."' Amy & Louis

I Will Love You Anyway and Fred by Mick and Chloe Inkpen reduced me and my 6ft 1 bruiser of an OH to tears.

But the line that chokes me up is from Dogger by Shirley Hughes: "Then Bella did something very kind..."

And the whole of Goodbye Mog by Judith Kerr. Can't get through it. Never have.

...the Princess Saralinda thought she saw, as people often think they see, on clear and windless days, the distant shining shores of Ever After. Your guess is quite as good as mine (there are a lot of things that shine) but I have always thought she did, and I will always think so.

"Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open."

"Happiness can be found in the darkest of places, if one only remembers to turn on the light"

"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love."

Dumbledore, and there are many others from HP.

The boy in the striped pyjamas. Have also cried countless times in front of teenagers when reading this line:

•	“...Despite the mayhem that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel's hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let go.”

"then one day, everything changed" - the last line from '(oliver)' by Christopher Fraschetti. I buy this book for all my pregnant friends.

Agree with all the Oh the Places You Go quotes and also from Giraffes Can't Dance "we all can dance, he said, when we find music that we love".

Gorgeous idea for a thread, thanks OP. I will be checking out some of the other books mentioned. Reading time with my children has so far been one of the absolute highlights of being a parent.

A plea: those of you that only know Winnie the Pooh from Disney, please read the original. It's so much better!

The how do you spell love quote is Disney as well...

A lot of these Winnie the Pooh lines are Disney, not Milne.

Ha - snap!

Neil Gaiman's Instructions tells you what to do if you find yourself in a fairy tale. It's odd and beautiful and the lines that I love best are:

"Trust dreams.
Trust your heart
And trust your story."

If you go to Great Missenden in Bucks where Roald Dahl lived and where the museum is now (which is totally awesome btw!) you can walk up to the church and visit his grave. There is a bench around a tree and inscripted on the ground is

We have tears in our eyes
As we wave our goodbyes,
We so loved being with you, we three.
So do please now and then
Come and see us again,
The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.

I remember going on our first school trip there (as a teacher) and reading that and being like 'oh, I have something in my eye'. We all sat down there then, and I read a bit of George's Marvellous Medicine, and the kids were so quiet, and it was just such a lovely moment