Is it wrong that the only book to ever make me cry proper real tears . . .

[TheCountessOlenska]

is Black Beauty

However many times I read it! And also, at several different points in the story!! (Ginger off to the knackers yard, Black Beauty's ruined knees, when James says "why it's our old Black Beauty from Orchard Farm, I'd know that star on his forehead anywhere" etc etc)

I don't even like horses that much

I am now in tears thinking about Black Beauty, Watership Down and Goodnight Mr Tom. The one book that had me all-out sobbing, and devastated for weeks after, was the ending of 'Jenny' by Paul Gallico (also the author of Thomasina). I'm still not over that book!

Jennie, not Jenny!

Oh oh oh "Gobbolino is a witches cat"! Cried every single chapter and could never read it again. As for Watership Down, the film traumatised me so much as a child I shudder to even think about it.
Mind you, I cried at a centerparcs advert this week!

Oh God! Black Beauty is a sure fire sobfest. In fact, anything to do with animals.

Recently, I read Witch Light (aka Corrag) and the part where her brown mare dies had me sobbing convulsively.

Ooh yes forgot about Jennie! Also Charlotte's Web (cannot wait to read that to DD, such a lovely book).

And yes to His Dark Materials trilogy - when Lyra has to leave her daemon behind

I love love love Anne of Green Gables but for some reason it's animal related suffering/death that makes me well up!

Matthew dying in Anne of Green Gables used to make me sob when I was younger, not read it recently (sure it's free on Kindle)

We watched the film of Charlotte's Web recently with DS (5). When it started he asked me suspiciously 'does it end well for the pig?'. I blithely said 'oh yes, don't worry the pig is fine...'

He was so upset when Charlotte died, proper sobbing :(

Michael Morpurgo gets right on my nerves, all that relentless dying and loss.

I recently re-read Charlottes Web and realised that it's actually beautifully written.

Snow Goose, Paul Gallico, anyone mentioned that yet?

God yes, what is it with children's books? The Diddakoi's another that springs to mind.

Not read Marley & Me but the film had me in floods of tears - same for the Bridge to Terabithia...

Oh lordy yes, The Diddakoi.

Has anyone ever read "I heard the owl call my name"? I was given it as a teenager and have read it every few years since then. I cry every time... www.amazon.co.uk/Heard-Call-Name-Picador-Books/dp/0330247654/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341003934&sr=1-1
I have never met anyone else who has read it.

And what about "I am David"? another sobfest!

Jennie by Paul Gallico. Wonderful book.

Bridges of Madison county. Read the book and cried. Went to see at the cinema and there was a woman behind us proper sobbing. Really heartbroken.

The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint Exupery)

(Good Night Mr Tom known in the school where my friend teaches as The Wet Bed Book!)

Oh, "Good Night Mr Tom"... "he called me Dad"...

Jem being greeted by Dog Monday in Rilla of Ingleside makes me howl. Every single time I read it (it's my favourite book of the whole series)

And Goodbye Mog.. I tried to read that to my kids and sobbed my way though it!

I am David... oh yes...

And for adults.. the last few paragraphs of C.S Lewis' 'The Screwtape Letters' (letters from an older devil to a younger one on how to get your human's soul into hell' ) I'm not a Christian but the end is just... whoa!

Oh I forgot about little Dog Monday!

Oh, I am David... crying now as I think of when he knocks at his mother's door...

Children on the Oregon trail? When they finally get to Oregon and the oldest boy goes and lays his head in the minister's wife's lap (after leading his siblings across the rockies and nearly dying loads of times), ohhh...

I cried inconsolably at The Book Thief when I was sat by the pool on holiday. I had to scurry back to the hotel room to sort myself out.

Thought up some more - The Call of the Wild and White Fang, full of tragedy and abandonment issues and the undying loyalty of a dog/wolf to his pack or chosen owner...

The Animals of bloody Farthing Wood - another one where the TV series was also signficantly to blame for childhood nightmares, but the books were also desperately sad in parts.

I haven't read it myself but I know the story - I'm surprised The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas hasn't been mentioned yet.

I read Roald Dahl's The Witches with DD several years ago. I read it when it first came out when I was about 9, but reading it as an adult, I understood the ending and had a huge lump in my throat.

YY to Rilla of Ingleside - the bit that gets me is when Walter dies. He was my secret book crush when I first read the series as a young girl and I was traumatized when he was killed.

When I was older, reading Schindlers List reduced to tears.

Several of the books already mentioned make me blub. I read the end of His Dark Materials in the bath and big fat tears were dropping in the water.

The last thing I read that made me cry was I Heard The Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven. Not a particularly well written book but lovely nonetheless. An Amazon reviewer said 'it's the kind of book that whispers to you rather than shouts' and it describes it perfectly. By the end I was sobbing.

I agree about Oscar Wilde's fairy tales, they're beautiful.
I refuse to read the last Mog book, Mog was my favourite book to read to my ds when he was little, Mog can't be dead. I won't accept it.

Ha ha LadyBeagleEyes, but Mog can live forever in your heart

As long as I never have to read the last book, Mog will live forever.
If I ever have grandchildren I'll pretend it doesn't exist.