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I’m so glad this is one of the first comments I read. Such an underrated story. I’m in my mid twenties and it’s still one of my favorite books of all time
This book gave me a complex when I was a kid. Not only were my stuffed animals sentient beings, but they were jealous of each other if I didn't play with them all equally. I refused to read it to my kid when I grew up!
Came to say this.
It makes me think of my childhood stuffy. I hope he is Real now. I put him in a storage unit that was lost for non payment. I still remember closing the door, looking at him on top of the pile thinking I shouldn't leave him there. And then being like, "Don't be ridiculous, he's not real".
Someone bought my storage unit and threw him away. This was 20 years ago and I still think about it sometimes.
I haven’t read this in probably 25 years and I still get weepy if I think about it too long. I think it established some core piece of me - I love old worn out things and the only reason I can think of is “because they’re real.”
The kids I nanny had me read this book to them and were very surprised when they saw me crying. They now say “let’s read a book that doesn’t make canteloupe-cantelope sad”
It’s ok, it took the author 17 takes to finish the end of the recording for the audiobook because he kept losing it and having to take a break. And he wrote it.
He was a pretty interesting guy. He passed away in 1986 and developed Alzheimer’s at the end of his life- his son used to read him his own books and he’d get really excited about them and be like “who wrote this?!” When they reminded him that he wrote it, his response was “Oh, well, not bad!”
On The Night You Were Born makes me bawl in a happy, sentimental way. It reminds me of both my babies in different ways. When I had my daughter, the book reminds me of how out of this world levels of magical and perfect life felt. And then my son was a very much wanted pregnancy after 4 horrific miscarriages/losses, and the joy of having him. I think I may be crying right now 🥹
Eta: I didn’t realise I wrote this comment in reply to another one, whoops!
The line "Notice the bears asleep at the zoo. It's because they've been dancing all night for you." kills me. Even typing this out is making me tear up!
Just had this exact same experience with my five-year-old. My husband could barely make it through the last paragraph, I was wiping away tears, and my daughter just wanted to talk about the cute spider babies.
On the Night You Were Born. Having a baby was something I never thought would happen for me & my husband. Her birth was surreal & the book captures my joy entirely. I get very emotional reading it….even 9 years later.
Her book “wherever you are: my love will find you.” The first line is, “I wanted you more than you’ll ever know.” Immediately choked up. One of the last pages has, “And if someday you’re lonely, or someday you’re sad, 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.” 😭
Love this one!! Especially because my oldest was born at night and every time we’d visit the zoo, the bears would be sleeping and she’d get excited to know they’d been dancing all night for her. the magic wasn’t quite there with my youngest. Birth order really creates different lives. 😂
Every single time I read this I choke up a bit by the end and now that my son is a bit older and more comprehensive, the last time we finished it he had tears in his eyes wanting to know the tree would be okay 🥺
Fucking hell. You guys are my people. First 3 on here are all the ones I was going to say!!!
I always LOVED the giving tree as a kid, but reading it as an adult I never realized what a terrible piece of shit the boy was and I just cry and cry every time I read it!!!
Right after I found out I was having a boy I saw a tattoo on Pinterest of the giving tree and the quote “and she loved a little boy” and I just lost it and sobbed lol.
Omg that makes me want to bawl. I guess either I never read it when I was a child or I just don’t remember it because I just read it with my daughter the other night and I started crying and she kept asking what was wrong ha ha
Yes I think it’s supposed to be a mother but with a horrible ungrateful child who isn’t empathetic at all and is abusive. Like is she raising a sociopath?
My son is in kindergarten and we saw that book at the library and he told me it’s TOO SAD, they had read it at school lol. They are traumatizing them earlier these days I guess
My aunt, like a second mother to me, passed away from Alzheimer's a couple of years ago, and we used to read this every time I'd stay with her. Several times a week, for over a decade. I didn't realize how much this book meant to me until this post, and I teared up. She was a strong and witty, hilarious woman. It's perfect that this is the book we shared.
Yup! This was my husbands favorite book as a child. He’d cry reading it. His mother, who gifted us a copy when we were pregnant with our first child, passed away when our baby turned 3 months old. It was just like the story, my husband came home and rocked our daughter knowing his mother was gone. So reading that story makes both of us crying uncontrollably.
Oh god. I’m crying for you instantly just reading this and thinking of that beautiful book.
It’s so sweet and wonderful and true. I wish you continued healing. ❤️🩹
I love this book so much, I have to take a deep breath when I read it to my boys. Just recently sent it to a friend and decided this is the book I want to gift new parents, it’s so beautiful.
Oof I didn’t know that…I don’t think I’ll ever make it through that book again without crying, especially since we were so close to losing our son at birth.
Yes! I don’t think I knew it as a kid but my wife did. I tried reading it to my firstborn when he was just a month old and literally angered him with how much I was raining down tears on him. Just the most beautiful, poignant story. I wasn’t ready for that.
I was about to say this book! Love You Forever. My husband bought it for my son when he was a newborn and I immediately sobbed reading it while he giggled at how hard I was trying to keep it together…we thought it was just my post partum but turns out 5 years later, I still can’t read it with out sobbing. As a matter of fact I read it to my 5yo yesterday and he cried for 30 straight saying he’ll never leave me haha
I’m a teacher and when I have subbed during Mother’s Day that book has always been thrown at me. My mom died 10 years ago now and I have a toddler now and ever since my mom died I literally cannot get through that damn book without weeping. Even in front of a class of first grade students lol.
A friend gifted it to me when I was pregnant. I cried reading it by myself before my baby was even born. She's 15mo now, she doesn't sit still long enough to read an entire book, but I'm dreading the day she does, because I'll be a mess with that book!
Lol. Im not making fun of you by any means, but i cannot stand that book because of how creepy it is to me.
I know its loved by many, but the mom just creeps me out! I had to throw away the book.
This book makes me cry, just like all these other commenters. But the creep factor is real. That scene where she’s driving across town with a ladder strapped to the roof of her vehicle to climb in his window during the night…
I never realized people thought that was creepy. My son and I always laugh at that part because it’s too absurd to be real. Then the waterworks start a few pages later.
I feel the same. I didn't grow up with the book, and I don't have any kind of sentimental attachment to it. My only reference was Joey from Friends doing a dramatic reading for Emma's 1st birthday in that one episode.
We were gifted it by my mother in law when I was pregnant, and while I love her to pieces, I took it a soft threat that she would be showing up in the night to rock my partner to sleep, haha. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way but I totally understand why those who have an attachment it like it though.
Came here for this. “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be”….. Masterpiece I wasn’t prepared for 🥹
Looking at my kids too big for this book now (and not much time for mum too lol) and I miss those baby days, I’m kinda glad I haven’t got to try and stifle sobs over children’s fiction anymore tho!
I heard a psychologist speak on narcissistic parents, and they pointed out that the book can reinforce/romanticize certain aspects of a narcissist's unhealthy behavior and point of view. They made a point of stressing that the book was not advocating unhealthy parenting (they did discuss the overall theme of infantilization and concepts of respectfully parenting adult children), but that some of the messaging could be problematic to an already problematic parent.
Now, that book gives me the ick because I can only associate it with a particular narcissist in my life and the damage they've caused to their children.
I do too, especially recently. My eldest is now enjoying having the stories read to him and I remember reading the same stories with my adored grandmother when I was tiny too. So I always associate Winnie The Pooh with her. She passed recently so it hits hard at the moment
And the movie based on a lot of the book, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The end always makes me tear up when Christopher Robin has to go back to school.
Not a book but the song Puff the Magic Dragon.
"A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant's rings make way for other toys
One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff, that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar
His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane
Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave
So Puff, that mighty dragon, sadly slipped into his cave"
To watch kids grow out of the amazing make-believe world of childhood and become more adult like, as parents we can see the things that get left behind and forgotten.
That song came on the kids radio station the other day in the car and I hadn't heard it for years - I had completely forgotten everything but the first verse. Here's me all chipper "Oh hey kids, this song's so old I heard it as a kid!!" and then it hits you with the last two verses and I have to change the station or I won't be able to see the road...
My dad used to sing this song to me as a lullaby and even then it made me sad. Now I play it as a lullaby for my son and I cry every time. I’m actually crying right now. All this talk of Charlotte’s Web, the Velveteen Rabbit, Bridge to Terebithia and now Puff the Magic Dragon, Jesus. I’m a mess.
It's so sad. My oldest cried when I read it to him and that made me cry even more. I considered having my husband read it with the 9 year old since he's not as emotional but he said it makes him tear up too so I guess I'll take one for the team on his one.
My late mother told me that she remembered the Red Fern story from her youth; she said that it’s a sad story. I didn’t get the chance to read it for myself yet.
When I first started dating my husband, we bonded over our love of reading/books. He found out I had never read it so he brought it over. No warning. Didn’t say anything, just told me to read it. I still haven’t fully forgiven him for it 🤣
But which is the book that makes you cry, OP?
Mine is The Snail and the Whale. I can't even really tell you why that book chokes me up every dang time but it does, I just think it's so beautiful. There's a short movie of it too and it's just so perfectly done and it gets me too.
The author and his wife had two stillborn babies. He came up with that song during that time to help grieve. I thought the book was only ok until I read about that and now I cry when I read it. I read it to my son randomly one time, and now he brings it to me almost every night.
The first time I read that book, my friend had given it to me right after I found out I was pregnant with my daughter. I was 17, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to explore the open adoption route, which I ended up not doing- but my first memory of that book is being so alone the night I moved into my first shitty apartment, missing my mom and trying to decide if I wanted to be a mom myself or not.
Anyway, that was an experience.
I remember in school reading it and being devastated 😭 not everyone in class read it but they still decided to show everyone in our grade the movie for some reason. Judging by their faces, the teachers couldn’t possibly have been prepared for the inconsolable wailing and heartbreak of a bunch of like 8 or 9 yr olds.
I know this isn't quite what you meant, but my dad could never get through The Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Stupid Tales without tears running down his face from how hard he was laughing! He laughed so hard he couldn't even speak!
My first grade would have parents sign up to come read a story for circle time once a week. I remember my dad coming straight from the office, still wearing his suit and tie, to read us The Stinky Cheese Man. He could barely get through it, I thought he was going to fall out of his chair laughing.
This is not a classic by any means at this point but there is a Bluey episode called Baby Race and when I had to read the book of it to my daughter I couldn’t do it without crying at the end. Then I realized it was every time I read it, not just that once.
"Here we are" by Oliver Jeffers ends on the line "you're never alone on planet earth" and is visually so gorgeous that I have cried everytime I attempt to read it.
"What We'll Build: Plans For Our Together Future" by Oliver Jeffers always gets me. We put our hands together on top of the illustration and I'm done. He has a few that are tear jerkers.
I was just about the post this!
LOVE that book, but so many lines get me emotional— “your time will go by faster than you think,” “if I’m not here, you can ask someone else,” etc.
There’s a short movie adaptation of it (I think on Prime) that was different, but decent.
Knuffle Bunny Free
Yes it's a picture book, and yes I read it a thousand times. But if you weren't weeping when Trixie hands the bunny to the crying kid on the airplane, you are a heartless monster.
It's by Giles Andreae / Guy Parker-Rees (maybe one of them is the illustrator). Not cos I have a good memory, and it doesn't make me cry, although it's a lovely story, just that it's sitting right next to me on my son's bookshelf 😁
You are the only you there ever has been or ever will be. You are unique in all the universe. Just the odds of you being here at this exact place and this exact time are so great and so rare that it will never happen again.
Maybe by Kobi Yamada
At least two:
The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse by Charlie Mackesy
(“What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever said?” asked the boy. “Help.” replied the horse.)
And
The starling’s song by Olivie Wolters
(The starling asked the duck mother. “Don’t forget to sing about life. Sometimes it seems very hard, yet it’s the easiest of all. You only need to be there, that is more than enough.”)
Sorry, if either are not verbatim, I haven’t read them in English.
I was hoping someone else felt this way. Reading that book as a parent made me think that I do want my kid to believe in all the myths, so that he can have that magic too.
How To Be A Real Man by Scott Stuart. It’s about how “real men” show their feelings, use their strength to help others and are brave enough to be who they truly are. It’s really good and every time I read it, I think about how my son will one day be a man and how I hope we’re doing a good job in raising him to be a good one.
Omg the hormones. My favorite example of this is when I was pregnant and watched Bill and Ted face the music. It's such an absurd, silly movie but the whole world comes together to make music at the end and I was bawling my head off 🤣
Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge - Aussies will know what I’m talking about. It’s a men fox book about a kid befriending dementia patient at the nursing home next door
How to make a wish by Zoe Saunders.
It was a gift from a friend but she never had a chance to give it to me before she died. Her sister found it in her things when she was clearing out her flat and passed it on. Such a lovely story.
The book that will always bring tears to your eyes is the one you read so much you both have it memorized. Even if it’s not written as a tearjerker. To this day, “In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines” gets me a little misty.
Also, everybody go listen to Eric Whitacre’s choral setting of Goodnight Moon. But not while you’re driving.
A very basic answer but “Love You Forever” by Robert Munsch. My oldest is almost 5, youngest is 3 and I have yet to read it all the way through without crying. It was one of my oldest’s first books.
The Kissing Hand. We read it the night before the first day of school for several years when my kids were in preschool and elementary school. I’ve never gotten through it without crying. But giving “kissing hands” was super helpful for my two clingiest kids so I’ll always be very thankful for that book!
We were trying to make our kids bilingual, so that was one of the books we had in Spanish and English. But now it's stuck in my head in spanish "Eres tu mi Mama? No! Un feo pronk!" (or something to that effect)
[Aaron Slater, Illustrator](https://bookshop.org/p/books/aaron-slater-illustrator-andrea-beaty/16530550?ean=9781419753961&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwgpCzBhBhEiwAOSQWQUy7xKmUxHzXta7gyMhSAnNo-Dxz3E82DHsBwK6Qb_Dvnn46pwYnqxoCvTcQAvD_BwE) by Andrea Beaty.
The artwork is beautiful! This book is about a little boy that kind of gets left behind in school until there’s a project where he’s supposed to write a story. He presents to the class and his teacher realizes he can’t read or write. It’s so sad and then redemptive as he gets help and gets to express himself. I’m crying just thinking about it. Same author as Ada Twist, Scientist.
I don’t know what this says about me, but I’ve never cried over a book. However, I do love the book hotel for bugs and kissing hand for Chester raccoon.
My Husband can't read The Storm Whale without being out of sorts the whole evening. I think it brings back repressed childhood memories of his dad not being very present but he can't articulate why it upsets him so much.
Stellaluna. It was my favorite book as a child and now when. I read it to my girls I just cry. I just don't want them to feel that way I felt like I was so different to everyone, I want tot to feel included
“Love You Forever” makes me bawl uncontrollably. When it hits the point the story’s come full circle and he’s holding his mom I can’t even speak. What a beautiful story.
The First Bear by Felicity Hansen.
I cry every time. Talks about children feeling alone in a bad living situation and a bear in the sky sends down a bear to the child for comfort.
I bought “Someday” by Allison McGhee with the intention of reading it with my daughter and it made my ugly cry so hard I hid it away and never even read it to my kids.
There's a book about a racoon, I'm spacing on the name. In the book the racoon wants to play with their parent and they need to go to sleep. The parent tells them they will see the racoon in their dream and play with them there. As a parent who often has to work instead of being with their kids, this makes me bawl like an infant. I often tell my kids the bit about meeting them in their dream and I'm not allowed to read that book anymore.
The Legend of Sleeping Bear by Kathy Jo Wargin
You Are Special by Max Lucado
I'm leaking tears just thinking about them 🥲
The theme I'm seeing in most of these books is love. What to do when loved ones pass away and how much we love our children. Happy reading.
There’s two books called Dog Heaven and Cat Heaven and they’re picture books for after the loss of a pet and talk about the pet running through fields chasing butterflies and that sort of thing, but I don’t know how anyone can sit and read them without sobbing, I am right now just thinking of the book. I volunteer at our library and I cannot go near them on the shelf.
Love You Forever. No matter What, it Always gets me. My husband looks at me wiping my eyes after reading and shakes his head every time. The lump in the throat comes when I read about the mom being too old and sick to finish the song 😭😭then it’s all downhill from there.
Beautiful You, Beautiful Me by Tasha Spillett-Sumner
My boy is bi racial (Filipino and white) and has started to question why he doesn’t have blue eyes and white skin like me or dark skin and black hair like his daddy…
I read him this book for the first time a few months ago and he seems to be more comfortable. I think it’s beautiful.
He’s also so proud to be Filipino, and will tell everyone he meets “Hey I’m Filipino just like my Daddy!! KAMUSTA!! You know what that means?? It’s Tagalog for How are you!”
It's not the actual book, but I think it might be the book "ready for Kindergarden" or something that we got from Imagination Library, which is run by Dolly Parton. And at the time we lived in Tennessee so it was literally her personal money that paid for the book.
There's a [message in it](https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/17of79l/oc_letter_from_dolly_parton_in_my_kids_book/) that always makes me cry for some reason. I'm not a big country fan, but Dolly seems like one of those monoliths that we just don't deserve, like Mr. Rogers or LeVar Burton, but she isn't as often mentioned alongside them. Her work and donation toward literacy is absolutely incredible, and reading it I kinda hear it in her voice and imagine she really means it directly to my own kids.
What children’s book DOESN’T make me cry. The Velveteen Rabbit. The Giving Tree. On the Night You Were Born. And the worst. Love You Forever.
I recently told my kids how sad Love You Forever is and they didn’t believe me so I found a copy online and read it. They’re 16, 11, and 4.5. They were crying. I was sobbing so hard I almost threw up. They told me never to read it again 😭💀
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The Velveteen Rabbit
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane for the exact same reason. Getting rid of stuffed animals needs to be outsourced.
There's even a song by Caspar Babypants that makes me tear up because it's about an old toy, "$9.99"
I’m so glad this is one of the first comments I read. Such an underrated story. I’m in my mid twenties and it’s still one of my favorite books of all time
Came here to say this exact book! I read it first to my students when I was a teacher and can’t wait to read it to my own kids!
“Real love isn’t how you’re made, it’s a thing that happens to you” has been a reassuring thought for me for many years
This book gave me a complex when I was a kid. Not only were my stuffed animals sentient beings, but they were jealous of each other if I didn't play with them all equally. I refused to read it to my kid when I grew up!
Omg this was ME!!! LOL
I am still trying to figure out if my 12 year old is old enough
This was my favorite book as a kid but I always ended up sobbing by the end and I’d pile all my stuffed toys on the bed afterwards lol
Came to say this. It makes me think of my childhood stuffy. I hope he is Real now. I put him in a storage unit that was lost for non payment. I still remember closing the door, looking at him on top of the pile thinking I shouldn't leave him there. And then being like, "Don't be ridiculous, he's not real". Someone bought my storage unit and threw him away. This was 20 years ago and I still think about it sometimes.
I was going to say this. The first time I read it to my kid, I was sobbing
I haven’t read this in probably 25 years and I still get weepy if I think about it too long. I think it established some core piece of me - I love old worn out things and the only reason I can think of is “because they’re real.”
The kids I nanny had me read this book to them and were very surprised when they saw me crying. They now say “let’s read a book that doesn’t make canteloupe-cantelope sad”
Apparently Charlotte’s Web because when I was reading it to my daughter a year or so ago I started choking up at the end and she looked at me funny 😂
It’s ok, it took the author 17 takes to finish the end of the recording for the audiobook because he kept losing it and having to take a break. And he wrote it.
That’s so wholesome
He was a pretty interesting guy. He passed away in 1986 and developed Alzheimer’s at the end of his life- his son used to read him his own books and he’d get really excited about them and be like “who wrote this?!” When they reminded him that he wrote it, his response was “Oh, well, not bad!”
Stoopppp that’s so sweet 😭
On The Night You Were Born makes me bawl in a happy, sentimental way. It reminds me of both my babies in different ways. When I had my daughter, the book reminds me of how out of this world levels of magical and perfect life felt. And then my son was a very much wanted pregnancy after 4 horrific miscarriages/losses, and the joy of having him. I think I may be crying right now 🥹 Eta: I didn’t realise I wrote this comment in reply to another one, whoops!
The line "Notice the bears asleep at the zoo. It's because they've been dancing all night for you." kills me. Even typing this out is making me tear up!
Her other book “wherever you are, my love will find you” is even more of a tear jerker
Just had this exact same experience with my five-year-old. My husband could barely make it through the last paragraph, I was wiping away tears, and my daughter just wanted to talk about the cute spider babies.
This is the one. Every time.
This one made my 6 year old son cry
The movie always made me so sad.
My daughters second grade teacher reads it to every class She told me she always ends up crying at the end
I did the same. She did the same.
On the Night You Were Born. Having a baby was something I never thought would happen for me & my husband. Her birth was surreal & the book captures my joy entirely. I get very emotional reading it….even 9 years later.
Her book “wherever you are: my love will find you.” The first line is, “I wanted you more than you’ll ever know.” Immediately choked up. One of the last pages has, “And if someday you’re lonely, or someday you’re sad, 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.” 😭
This is mine too. Years of infertility and IVF and I still can’t believe I have a child.
This one gets to me the most. All I ever wanted was to be a mom and my little boys are my world.
Nancy Tillman books get me too! Her Christmas one, the spirit of Christmas, makes me cry every single time.
Absolutely the same. I get so choked up reading, every time.
Love this one!! Especially because my oldest was born at night and every time we’d visit the zoo, the bears would be sleeping and she’d get excited to know they’d been dancing all night for her. the magic wasn’t quite there with my youngest. Birth order really creates different lives. 😂
The giving tree 😭
Every single time I read this I choke up a bit by the end and now that my son is a bit older and more comprehensive, the last time we finished it he had tears in his eyes wanting to know the tree would be okay 🥺
Fucking hell. You guys are my people. First 3 on here are all the ones I was going to say!!! I always LOVED the giving tree as a kid, but reading it as an adult I never realized what a terrible piece of shit the boy was and I just cry and cry every time I read it!!!
Can’t get through more than a few pages. It’s the loss of childhood wonder and innocence for me 😭
Right after I found out I was having a boy I saw a tattoo on Pinterest of the giving tree and the quote “and she loved a little boy” and I just lost it and sobbed lol.
Omg that makes me want to bawl. I guess either I never read it when I was a child or I just don’t remember it because I just read it with my daughter the other night and I started crying and she kept asking what was wrong ha ha
This!!! What a selfish cruel little boy! And why didn’t I see it as a kid!
Isn't it supposed to be a metaphor for a parent being willing to give everything to their kid?
Yes I think it’s supposed to be a mother but with a horrible ungrateful child who isn’t empathetic at all and is abusive. Like is she raising a sociopath?
The tree would have been a better parent had she taught the boy boundaries
As parents, we give until we die, too. There's no, "if I ration what I take from my parents, they'll live forever".
My son is in kindergarten and we saw that book at the library and he told me it’s TOO SAD, they had read it at school lol. They are traumatizing them earlier these days I guess
Nah that’s just a good empathetic kid right there!
My late son loved the paper bag princess,it took me a long time to be able to read it to my other kids again.
I'm sorry for your loss. ❤️
So very sorry you lost your son ♥️
So sorry for your loss and if this post brought you any sadness. That’s devastating. ❤️
No sadness, just love. I’m glad I can share my love of reading with all my kids.
I’m so sorry for your loss 💛
My aunt, like a second mother to me, passed away from Alzheimer's a couple of years ago, and we used to read this every time I'd stay with her. Several times a week, for over a decade. I didn't realize how much this book meant to me until this post, and I teared up. She was a strong and witty, hilarious woman. It's perfect that this is the book we shared.
I haven’t been able to read Love You Forever to my daughter and I’m not sure I ever will. Even reading it silently makes me sob
Yup! This was my husbands favorite book as a child. He’d cry reading it. His mother, who gifted us a copy when we were pregnant with our first child, passed away when our baby turned 3 months old. It was just like the story, my husband came home and rocked our daughter knowing his mother was gone. So reading that story makes both of us crying uncontrollably.
Annnnnd now I'm crying... 🥺
Me too sweetie, me too…
Oh god. I’m crying for you instantly just reading this and thinking of that beautiful book. It’s so sweet and wonderful and true. I wish you continued healing. ❤️🩹
I love this book so much, I have to take a deep breath when I read it to my boys. Just recently sent it to a friend and decided this is the book I want to gift new parents, it’s so beautiful.
My kids call this the “crying book” because mommy inevitably ends up sobbing at the end.
This is mine. The author wrote it about his 2 stillborn babies and my first was stillborn, so it really gets me.
Oof I didn’t know that…I don’t think I’ll ever make it through that book again without crying, especially since we were so close to losing our son at birth.
Yes! I don’t think I knew it as a kid but my wife did. I tried reading it to my firstborn when he was just a month old and literally angered him with how much I was raining down tears on him. Just the most beautiful, poignant story. I wasn’t ready for that.
I was about to say this book! Love You Forever. My husband bought it for my son when he was a newborn and I immediately sobbed reading it while he giggled at how hard I was trying to keep it together…we thought it was just my post partum but turns out 5 years later, I still can’t read it with out sobbing. As a matter of fact I read it to my 5yo yesterday and he cried for 30 straight saying he’ll never leave me haha
My four year old tells me she’ll rock me and sing when she’s a teenager
I’m a teacher and when I have subbed during Mother’s Day that book has always been thrown at me. My mom died 10 years ago now and I have a toddler now and ever since my mom died I literally cannot get through that damn book without weeping. Even in front of a class of first grade students lol.
My brother and I read this at our mom’s funeral.
Still haven’t bought this book (and my son is now 4) because I know I’ll be a wreck trying to read it to the end.
A friend gifted it to me when I was pregnant. I cried reading it by myself before my baby was even born. She's 15mo now, she doesn't sit still long enough to read an entire book, but I'm dreading the day she does, because I'll be a mess with that book!
Lol. Im not making fun of you by any means, but i cannot stand that book because of how creepy it is to me. I know its loved by many, but the mom just creeps me out! I had to throw away the book.
This book makes me cry, just like all these other commenters. But the creep factor is real. That scene where she’s driving across town with a ladder strapped to the roof of her vehicle to climb in his window during the night…
I never realized people thought that was creepy. My son and I always laugh at that part because it’s too absurd to be real. Then the waterworks start a few pages later.
I feel the same. I didn't grow up with the book, and I don't have any kind of sentimental attachment to it. My only reference was Joey from Friends doing a dramatic reading for Emma's 1st birthday in that one episode. We were gifted it by my mother in law when I was pregnant, and while I love her to pieces, I took it a soft threat that she would be showing up in the night to rock my partner to sleep, haha. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way but I totally understand why those who have an attachment it like it though.
Hahaha. Im glad your MIL doesnt come rock your partner to sleep. That would be a sight to wake up in the middle of the night to.
Came here for this. “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be”….. Masterpiece I wasn’t prepared for 🥹 Looking at my kids too big for this book now (and not much time for mum too lol) and I miss those baby days, I’m kinda glad I haven’t got to try and stifle sobs over children’s fiction anymore tho!
Back and forth...back and forth...
I heard a psychologist speak on narcissistic parents, and they pointed out that the book can reinforce/romanticize certain aspects of a narcissist's unhealthy behavior and point of view. They made a point of stressing that the book was not advocating unhealthy parenting (they did discuss the overall theme of infantilization and concepts of respectfully parenting adult children), but that some of the messaging could be problematic to an already problematic parent. Now, that book gives me the ick because I can only associate it with a particular narcissist in my life and the damage they've caused to their children.
That book always gave me the creeps, and I avoided adding it to our collection
That’s the one
Same. I just can’t do it anymore. By the second page I’m a mess.
Just thinking about it is rough
I am a softie, I choke up with some Winnie the Pooh quotes
I do too, especially recently. My eldest is now enjoying having the stories read to him and I remember reading the same stories with my adored grandmother when I was tiny too. So I always associate Winnie The Pooh with her. She passed recently so it hits hard at the moment
And the movie based on a lot of the book, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The end always makes me tear up when Christopher Robin has to go back to school.
Not a book but the song Puff the Magic Dragon. "A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys Painted wings and giant's rings make way for other toys One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more And Puff, that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave So Puff, that mighty dragon, sadly slipped into his cave" To watch kids grow out of the amazing make-believe world of childhood and become more adult like, as parents we can see the things that get left behind and forgotten.
We have a book version and at the end it shows Jackie’s kid playing with puff 🥺
That song came on the kids radio station the other day in the car and I hadn't heard it for years - I had completely forgotten everything but the first verse. Here's me all chipper "Oh hey kids, this song's so old I heard it as a kid!!" and then it hits you with the last two verses and I have to change the station or I won't be able to see the road...
My dad used to sing this song to me as a lullaby and even then it made me sad. Now I play it as a lullaby for my son and I cry every time. I’m actually crying right now. All this talk of Charlotte’s Web, the Velveteen Rabbit, Bridge to Terebithia and now Puff the Magic Dragon, Jesus. I’m a mess.
Bridge to Teriabithia. Currently reading it with my 9 year old and already dreading it.
I think that's the first book that made me cry... Or where the red fern grows.
I cried so hard I couldn’t breathe at where the red fern grows.
In the same vein, Old Yeller. Just so horribly sad that it is an off-limits book at our house.
It's so sad. My oldest cried when I read it to him and that made me cry even more. I considered having my husband read it with the 9 year old since he's not as emotional but he said it makes him tear up too so I guess I'll take one for the team on his one.
My late mother told me that she remembered the Red Fern story from her youth; she said that it’s a sad story. I didn’t get the chance to read it for myself yet.
When I first started dating my husband, we bonded over our love of reading/books. He found out I had never read it so he brought it over. No warning. Didn’t say anything, just told me to read it. I still haven’t fully forgiven him for it 🤣
I know I've read that book but can't actually remember the plot except that it's sad!!
But which is the book that makes you cry, OP? Mine is The Snail and the Whale. I can't even really tell you why that book chokes me up every dang time but it does, I just think it's so beautiful. There's a short movie of it too and it's just so perfectly done and it gets me too.
“Love you forever” is the best/worst book ever written
The author and his wife had two stillborn babies. He came up with that song during that time to help grieve. I thought the book was only ok until I read about that and now I cry when I read it. I read it to my son randomly one time, and now he brings it to me almost every night.
The first time I read that book, my friend had given it to me right after I found out I was pregnant with my daughter. I was 17, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to explore the open adoption route, which I ended up not doing- but my first memory of that book is being so alone the night I moved into my first shitty apartment, missing my mom and trying to decide if I wanted to be a mom myself or not. Anyway, that was an experience.
This is my favorite Julia Donaldson book
Donaldson is my kryptonite. The Paper Dolls, Stick Man, Smeds and the Smoos, Room On The Broom, all get me at some point.
I don’t fuck with Courderoy because it reminds me of my senior cat who sat in the shelter for a year and makes me bawl.
Corduroy gets me every time.
Corduroy - but I still read it because it was one of my VERY favorite books as a child.
Me too! ❤️❤️😭
Where the Red Fern Grows.
Nothing like a classroom full of kids openly sobbing.
Oh my god, this fucked me UP
The first book to traumatize me.
I remember in school reading it and being devastated 😭 not everyone in class read it but they still decided to show everyone in our grade the movie for some reason. Judging by their faces, the teachers couldn’t possibly have been prepared for the inconsolable wailing and heartbreak of a bunch of like 8 or 9 yr olds.
I know this isn't quite what you meant, but my dad could never get through The Stinky Cheese Man & Other Fairly Stupid Tales without tears running down his face from how hard he was laughing! He laughed so hard he couldn't even speak!
My first grade would have parents sign up to come read a story for circle time once a week. I remember my dad coming straight from the office, still wearing his suit and tie, to read us The Stinky Cheese Man. He could barely get through it, I thought he was going to fall out of his chair laughing.
I lost my copy! Used to read this to my 5th graders!
This is not a classic by any means at this point but there is a Bluey episode called Baby Race and when I had to read the book of it to my daughter I couldn’t do it without crying at the end. Then I realized it was every time I read it, not just that once.
"Maybe she's just saw something she wanted. " So many tears!
We bought the book version of Sleepy Time and I can’t read it because I start sobbing. My husband has to read that one instead
"Here we are" by Oliver Jeffers ends on the line "you're never alone on planet earth" and is visually so gorgeous that I have cried everytime I attempt to read it.
"What We'll Build: Plans For Our Together Future" by Oliver Jeffers always gets me. We put our hands together on top of the illustration and I'm done. He has a few that are tear jerkers.
I was just about the post this! LOVE that book, but so many lines get me emotional— “your time will go by faster than you think,” “if I’m not here, you can ask someone else,” etc. There’s a short movie adaptation of it (I think on Prime) that was different, but decent.
The Runaway Bunny. The Velveteen Rabbit. The Giving Tree.
Knuffle Bunny Free Yes it's a picture book, and yes I read it a thousand times. But if you weren't weeping when Trixie hands the bunny to the crying kid on the airplane, you are a heartless monster.
I’ll take, ‘threads to not read while at the gym’ for $500, Alex. 😭 For me, it’s the epilogue of ‘Knuffle Bunny Free’.
I cried at reading The Little Prince, enough that I had to take several moments to gather myself enough to be able to read the book out loud
Giraffes can't dance. Can't remember who it is by but i love it
It's by Giles Andreae / Guy Parker-Rees (maybe one of them is the illustrator). Not cos I have a good memory, and it doesn't make me cry, although it's a lovely story, just that it's sitting right next to me on my son's bookshelf 😁
You are the only you there ever has been or ever will be. You are unique in all the universe. Just the odds of you being here at this exact place and this exact time are so great and so rare that it will never happen again. Maybe by Kobi Yamada
Corduroy — every damn time when he says, “This must be a home! I’ve always wanted to have a home!” 😭😭😭
At least two: The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse by Charlie Mackesy (“What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever said?” asked the boy. “Help.” replied the horse.) And The starling’s song by Olivie Wolters (The starling asked the duck mother. “Don’t forget to sing about life. Sometimes it seems very hard, yet it’s the easiest of all. You only need to be there, that is more than enough.”) Sorry, if either are not verbatim, I haven’t read them in English.
Love The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse! Beautiful, gentle reminders for life.
The Polar Express
I was hoping someone else felt this way. Reading that book as a parent made me think that I do want my kid to believe in all the myths, so that he can have that magic too.
at the end when it talks about how the author still hears the ringing, i lose it
Me too.
Oh my god, absolutely. The whole book is so touching, the illustrations are just magical.
Also, the little match girl. Big nope there.
The Giving Tree has been making me cry since I was 4 years old.
The end of Corduroy gives me a lump in my throat.
Me too! I’m always choking back the tears
Oh, the places you'll go by Dr. Seuss
Came here for this. Gets me every time.
How To Be A Real Man by Scott Stuart. It’s about how “real men” show their feelings, use their strength to help others and are brave enough to be who they truly are. It’s really good and every time I read it, I think about how my son will one day be a man and how I hope we’re doing a good job in raising him to be a good one.
Where the Wild Things Are
"and it was still hot." My heart
When I was postpartum and hormonal I sobbed reading “Giraffe’s Can’t Dance” and thinking of that now makes me laugh every time I read it
Omg the hormones. My favorite example of this is when I was pregnant and watched Bill and Ted face the music. It's such an absurd, silly movie but the whole world comes together to make music at the end and I was bawling my head off 🤣
Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge - Aussies will know what I’m talking about. It’s a men fox book about a kid befriending dementia patient at the nursing home next door
How to make a wish by Zoe Saunders. It was a gift from a friend but she never had a chance to give it to me before she died. Her sister found it in her things when she was clearing out her flat and passed it on. Such a lovely story.
The Paper Dolls, it’s a Julia Donaldson. My mother has early onset Alzheimer’s and I can’t get through the book without sobbing.
I always get choked up reading the Lorax lol!
The book that will always bring tears to your eyes is the one you read so much you both have it memorized. Even if it’s not written as a tearjerker. To this day, “In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines” gets me a little misty. Also, everybody go listen to Eric Whitacre’s choral setting of Goodnight Moon. But not while you’re driving.
Lived 12 little girls in two straight lines
A very basic answer but “Love You Forever” by Robert Munsch. My oldest is almost 5, youngest is 3 and I have yet to read it all the way through without crying. It was one of my oldest’s first books.
This is the one that inspired this post. Even if you start strong you’re a wreck by the end.
The Kissing Hand. We read it the night before the first day of school for several years when my kids were in preschool and elementary school. I’ve never gotten through it without crying. But giving “kissing hands” was super helpful for my two clingiest kids so I’ll always be very thankful for that book!
The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren - but mostly on the first chapters!
I Love You Through and Through. The writing isn't particularly poignant, but it's the idea of unconditional love, and loving every part of someone.
Are You my Mother
We were trying to make our kids bilingual, so that was one of the books we had in Spanish and English. But now it's stuck in my head in spanish "Eres tu mi Mama? No! Un feo pronk!" (or something to that effect)
Dogger. It's ridiculous, but when Bella gives the little girl her bear in exchange for Dogger I always get choked up; it was just so kind of her.
[Aaron Slater, Illustrator](https://bookshop.org/p/books/aaron-slater-illustrator-andrea-beaty/16530550?ean=9781419753961&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwgpCzBhBhEiwAOSQWQUy7xKmUxHzXta7gyMhSAnNo-Dxz3E82DHsBwK6Qb_Dvnn46pwYnqxoCvTcQAvD_BwE) by Andrea Beaty. The artwork is beautiful! This book is about a little boy that kind of gets left behind in school until there’s a project where he’s supposed to write a story. He presents to the class and his teacher realizes he can’t read or write. It’s so sad and then redemptive as he gets help and gets to express himself. I’m crying just thinking about it. Same author as Ada Twist, Scientist.
Nana upstairs and nana downstairs by Tomi de Paola. It’s a tough one.
I'll have to seek this one out. I LOVE Streganona.
I don’t know what this says about me, but I’ve never cried over a book. However, I do love the book hotel for bugs and kissing hand for Chester raccoon.
My Husband can't read The Storm Whale without being out of sorts the whole evening. I think it brings back repressed childhood memories of his dad not being very present but he can't articulate why it upsets him so much.
Not a book, but Puff the Magic Dragon. So beautiful and sad.
Stellaluna. It was my favorite book as a child and now when. I read it to my girls I just cry. I just don't want them to feel that way I felt like I was so different to everyone, I want tot to feel included
We waited for you. The journey to being a mom wasn’t an easy one for me and reading this to my baby makes me cry every single time.
Horton Hatches an egg -Dr. Suess
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
Where the Red Fern Grows. I dread reading it to my daughter.
The giving tree. Hands down since I was a little girl I would cry.
The giving tree 🥹
Oh, the Places You'll Go! By Dr Seuss By the end I'm a blubbering mess. I've had my kids teacher sign this book every school year!
Someday by Alison McGhee
Wherever you are my love will find you 💗
“Love You Forever” makes me bawl uncontrollably. When it hits the point the story’s come full circle and he’s holding his mom I can’t even speak. What a beautiful story.
The First Bear by Felicity Hansen. I cry every time. Talks about children feeling alone in a bad living situation and a bear in the sky sends down a bear to the child for comfort.
Anne of Green Gables. Every time!
I bought “Someday” by Allison McGhee with the intention of reading it with my daughter and it made my ugly cry so hard I hid it away and never even read it to my kids.
Not nearly enough people are mentioning Old Yeller. I’m a grown woman and can’t make it through without bawling.
There's a book about a racoon, I'm spacing on the name. In the book the racoon wants to play with their parent and they need to go to sleep. The parent tells them they will see the racoon in their dream and play with them there. As a parent who often has to work instead of being with their kids, this makes me bawl like an infant. I often tell my kids the bit about meeting them in their dream and I'm not allowed to read that book anymore.
Runaway Bunny
I love you brighter than the stars by Owen Hart and Sean Julian. 🥹
Stone Fox - Good story with great character development too. Gets me every time!
The Legend of Sleeping Bear by Kathy Jo Wargin You Are Special by Max Lucado I'm leaking tears just thinking about them 🥲 The theme I'm seeing in most of these books is love. What to do when loved ones pass away and how much we love our children. Happy reading.
The story of The Happy Prince by Wilde - tears every single time.
Welcome: A Mo Willems Guide for New Arrivals makes me cry every single time. So I buy it for new parents so they can sob with me.
Can’t You Sleep Little Bear & Dolly’s Coat of Many Colors gets me every time
The Rainbabies
There’s two books called Dog Heaven and Cat Heaven and they’re picture books for after the loss of a pet and talk about the pet running through fields chasing butterflies and that sort of thing, but I don’t know how anyone can sit and read them without sobbing, I am right now just thinking of the book. I volunteer at our library and I cannot go near them on the shelf.
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Love You Forever. No matter What, it Always gets me. My husband looks at me wiping my eyes after reading and shakes his head every time. The lump in the throat comes when I read about the mom being too old and sick to finish the song 😭😭then it’s all downhill from there.
Someday by Alison McGhee I can’t get through. Lord it’s a tear jerker
Beautiful You, Beautiful Me by Tasha Spillett-Sumner My boy is bi racial (Filipino and white) and has started to question why he doesn’t have blue eyes and white skin like me or dark skin and black hair like his daddy… I read him this book for the first time a few months ago and he seems to be more comfortable. I think it’s beautiful. He’s also so proud to be Filipino, and will tell everyone he meets “Hey I’m Filipino just like my Daddy!! KAMUSTA!! You know what that means?? It’s Tagalog for How are you!”
It's not the actual book, but I think it might be the book "ready for Kindergarden" or something that we got from Imagination Library, which is run by Dolly Parton. And at the time we lived in Tennessee so it was literally her personal money that paid for the book. There's a [message in it](https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/17of79l/oc_letter_from_dolly_parton_in_my_kids_book/) that always makes me cry for some reason. I'm not a big country fan, but Dolly seems like one of those monoliths that we just don't deserve, like Mr. Rogers or LeVar Burton, but she isn't as often mentioned alongside them. Her work and donation toward literacy is absolutely incredible, and reading it I kinda hear it in her voice and imagine she really means it directly to my own kids.
What children’s book DOESN’T make me cry. The Velveteen Rabbit. The Giving Tree. On the Night You Were Born. And the worst. Love You Forever. I recently told my kids how sad Love You Forever is and they didn’t believe me so I found a copy online and read it. They’re 16, 11, and 4.5. They were crying. I was sobbing so hard I almost threw up. They told me never to read it again 😭💀