Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

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Fast Five: Children’s Books That Made Me Cry

20 Comments

Frindle — Andrew Clements
Frindle 
Yes, this is a book about a pen, but it’s more than that. It’s the story of a teacher challenging a student to grow, and I’ll forever be a softie when it comes to themes like this.



Pink and Say — Patricia Polacco

Pink and Say 
Just try and read the passage without weeping: “This is the hand, that has touched the hand, that has touched the hand, that shook the hand of Abraham Lincoln.” Then try it in front of a room of seventh graders.



The House at Pooh Corner — A. A. Milne

I was fine with this book until I read it to my first-born. That last chapter where Christopher Robin gets older and tells Pooh he might not be around so much anymore is a bittersweet tear festival.


Charolotte’s Web – E. B. White
Charlotte's Web 
The picture of friendship White creates is right on.



Brian’s Winter — Gary Paulsen
Brian's Winter  
Like Frindle, this might seem like another strange choice. Somehow I was saddened to see this phase of Brian’s life end. His rescue was necessary, but that meant (before Paulsen wrote the rest of the series) Brian’s story was over.


What children’s books made you cry?

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Filed Under: books and reading

Comments

  1. Natalie Aguirre says

    June 3, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    Great choices. I’d add The Secret Garden, one of my favorites as a child. It didn’t make me cry at the end but some of the middle parts were sad.

    Reply
  2. Carrie says

    June 3, 2011 at 12:39 pm

    Charlotte’s Web made me cry for sure. I still don’t kill spiders because of Charlotte.
    The book Plain Kate made me cry and also The Graveyard Book.

    Reply
  3. Tom M Franklin says

    June 3, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    at the end of PINK AND SAY the storyteller asks that you speakk Say’s name out loud so he won’t be forgotten. when i was an elementary school librarian, i used to finish that book by having the kids speak his name back to me.

    great book.

    — Tom

    Reply
  4. Andrea Mack says

    June 3, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    I really enjoyed Frindle.

    But a book I’ve read fairly recently that made me cry was Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. It made me laugh, too.

    Reply
  5. Faith E. Hough says

    June 3, 2011 at 3:06 pm

    I’m not a real cryer…even movies rarely get me tearing up. But the funny thing is, read a book aloud, and I’m hopeless. I blubbered when I read aloud Cheaper by the Dozen, Holes…lots of others. Luckily the people I’m reading to cry as well, so maybe they don’t notice so much…

    Reply
  6. Tere Kirkland says

    June 3, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    Loved Frindle! I’d completely forgotten about it, though.

    I cried reading Holes, Pooh, and Charlotte, too. Even some of the Prydain books made me cry. Those were my favorites.

    Reply
  7. Caroline Starr Rose says

    June 3, 2011 at 4:29 pm

    Tere, I didn’t know you liked Prydain! I’ve been meaning to re-read…

    Reply
  8. Caroline Starr Rose says

    June 3, 2011 at 4:33 pm

    I just finished Waiting for Normal, and while it didn’t make me cry, it broke my heart. Any book where the parent is unable to truly parent just breaks me up.

    Andrea, I’ll have to look into Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie.

    Reply
  9. Liesl says

    June 3, 2011 at 7:46 pm

    I’m not a very emotional person. (My husband will tell you I have clogged tear ducts.) But I loved Savvy by Ingrid Law and thought the ending was especially sweet.

    Reply
  10. The Pen and Ink Blog says

    June 3, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    I HATE to cry, I want books that make me laugh. That being said I adored Frindle (and pretty much anything else by Andrew Clements), The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg, The Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgeson Burnett, and Charlotte’s Web and The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White.
    None of these books are funny and I love them dearly. But they don’t make me cry.

    Reply
  11. Heidi Willis says

    June 3, 2011 at 9:47 pm

    I loved all these books! I have the original very OLD Pooh Corner books I’ve passed on to my girls.

    I bawl every time I read Island of the Blue Dolphins. And Summer to Die (by Lois Lowry). And Jacob Have I Loved (Katherine Patterson). Must be a sibling rivalry/survival thing.

    Reply
  12. A.L. Sonnichsen says

    June 4, 2011 at 1:31 am

    Oh, so many!

    I’m reading Charlotte’s Web to my kids right now.

    Walk Two Moons made me cry. So did Kira-Kira.

    I just saw your comment about Waiting for Normal. That was a hard book to read. I don’t think I cried, either, but it was very moving.

    Amy

    Reply
  13. Irene Latham says

    June 5, 2011 at 1:30 pm

    If I cry, it’s a Very Good Book. I love experiencing a book so deeply and crave the experience. Most recently: Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt

    Reply
  14. Caroline Starr Rose says

    June 5, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    Irene, I loved The Wednesday Wars. Must pick up Okay for Now.

    Reply
  15. bfav says

    June 6, 2011 at 7:01 am

    Sometimes I love a good cry. When I was young: Where the Red Fern Grows. Lately, MILO: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze and The Book Thief.

    Reply
  16. Michael Winchell says

    June 7, 2011 at 2:42 am

    I cry thinking about my favorite PB that I like to read to my six-month-old son. That would be the Dr. Suess classic, OH, THE PLACES YOU’LL GO! I love the message, and I spent the first few days of my son’s life whispering in his ear (to get him to sleep), “Where are you going to go…you can go anywhere you want in your dreams.”

    I also cried the first time I read FREAK THE MIGHTY. My students sometimes do as well.

    Reply
  17. Caroline Starr Rose says

    June 7, 2011 at 2:35 pm

    Michael, that’s beautiful. I remember reading a PB about growing up to one of my boys. I burst into tears, then he burst into tears seeing me respond to the story that way.

    Reply
  18. Shannon O'Donnell says

    June 7, 2011 at 7:12 pm

    Pink & Say is #1 on my list! LOVE that book, but I cry EVERY TIME.

    Harry Potter 6
    Shin’s Tricycle
    Faithful Elephants
    Fly Away Home

    Reply
  19. PS~Erin says

    June 11, 2011 at 1:35 am

    Because of Winn Dixie. I read it to my 4th graders when I taught and just boohooed. I’m about to start reading it with my 8 year old and I’m sure I’ll cry again. I’m weak with any dog book it seems. And Frindle made me cry too. It’s the teacher-student relationship that got me.

    I really enjoyed your article of at Steady Mom. Thanks for that.

    Reply
  20. Caroline Starr Rose says

    June 11, 2011 at 2:01 am

    Erin,

    Fellow teachers get the Frindle thing, I think. I don’t remember Winn Dixie being sad (though it’s been a while).

    What spawned this post is the fact I’ve just finished Brian’s Winter with my boys. No tears this time, but I could certainly see why it made me cry.

    Thanks for the comment about Steady Mom. I wrote that post in the heat of the moment. I’m glad others can relate.

    Reply

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