When I tucked C. (9) in the other night, I could tell something was wrong. His eyes looked everywhere but at mine, he wasn’t his usual chatty self, and his book was propped open to a page, though it was clear he was no longer reading it.
With a little motherly prodding, I soon discovered that the book he’d been reading had left him sad and a bit more emotional than he likes to be. This is the kid who prides himself on “never crying” when he gets hurt, and the fact that a book could create such an emotional response had him unsettled.
Without giving you the entire plot-line of the Warriors series, I’ll give you a little frame of reference. The Warriors is an (incredibly long) series about cats — their clan-life, their society, their struggle for survival in the wild. (I survived reading the first six books aloud with C., and then he had to take over from there — while I enjoyed reading with him, there’s only so much I can read about clan Gatherings and crowfood and cat battles.) C. had come to a part of the series where the cats’ present home — The Forest — was being destroyed and they all had to move to a new location. The book did turn rather sappy, dwelling on fond memories of their forest home, drawing out long good-byes from the cats…enough to make any devoted tween-age reader sentimental.
C., who had experienced his own mixed bag of feelings when we moved to our new home three years ago, was drawn right in to the emotion. And it was bothering him.
“Has a book ever made you really, really sad, Mom?” he asked.
Oh my, yes!
[spoiler alert]
I shared with him some of the many books that have made me cry over the years. Two of the most memorable were:
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe — I read this book so many times and cried every single time I got to the chapter where Aslan dies. And then I cried even harder when he came back. When we read the Narnia series aloud to C. a few years ago, I had to hand the book to Chad for those chapters, knowing I wouldn’t be able to get through them tear-free.
Where the Red Fern Grows — This book I read only once, when I was about 11 or 12. But I sobbed — sobbed — at the end. It made such an impression on me; I can’t remember ever crying so hard over a book before or since. Granted, I was a young girl, and a dog-loving young girl at that, and it didn’t take much to push my emotional buttons.
C. enjoyed hearing about my own reading-induced tears and appreciated knowing that he wasn’t the only one so affected by books. Then he asked me, “Did you still like those books, even though they made you cry?”
I guess he thought that, in an attempt to avoid sadness, I would immediately classify those books as: Avoid At All Costs.
But it’s quite the opposite. I wouldn’t have cried while reading those, or any, books unless I cared for the characters, unless I’d been drawn completely into the story world and felt fully invested in what was happening. So surprisingly — to C., at least — the books that made me cry were probably some of my favorites. Not because they made me cry. But rather, I only cried because I liked them so much.
In my old age (ha-ha), I now rarely cry when I read fiction. It still happens occasionally, but I’m more likely to be moved to tears when reading non-fiction — a well-crafted account of sacrifice, honor, or redemption. The principle still holds true, though: it’s the books where I am drawn in, captivated by characters and story alike, that touch my heart the most profoundly.
Has a book ever made you cry?
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Charlotte’s Web. I’m that much of a sap. But I know I’m not alone — there’s a third grade teacher at school who refuses to read it aloud to her kids because she can’t read it without crying.
Also the book “Love You Forever” makes me sob. That used to be the kids favorite book and it killed me every time.
There are probably many others. I remember I cried when I recently saw the movie “Bridge to Terebithia,” but I can’t remember if the book made me cry.
The Seventh Harry Potter. Pass the kleenex.
I have read several books as an adult that has made me cry. One called Hannah’s Gift sticks out as a recent one.
I remember sobbing at Where the Red Fern Grows as well. However I kept reading it over and over. I loved the book. Now I have passed that on to my daughter.
I don’t cry much over movies or books but anything that has to do with teaching usually evokes a tear in my eye. Years ago there was a story in a Readers Digest Condensed book, I think it was called One Child – oh man, that book made me cry and yet I would read it from time to time, knowing my heart needed to be softened.
I don’t cry too much in books either but there have been a few. “Redeeming Love” by Francine Rivers was one. There has been another just lately but I can’t remember now what it was.
The movie “Where the Red Fern Grows” had the same effect on me when I was a kid.
Where the Red Fern Grows crushed my daughter!!! It’s amazing how we can get so caught up in a book! That’s when ya know you have found an amazing author…
Oh yes! I would be hard-pressed now to remember which ones. Nut I like what you said about caring about the characters, which is a good thing, which causes our reactions.
Oh lord, I’m ridiculous – it doesn’t take much to get me crying (apart from you know, liking the book or movie or whathaveyou) I get easily emotionally swayed by fiction you could say. And it doesn’t make me like the work any less – maybe the opposite – it has moved me, and thus will be remembered.
The big one that stands out to me is the death of a character in the Zion Chronicles series by the Thoenes. The actual death didn’t affect me that much. But I cried when the relatives found out about the death. Cried so hard I had to put the book down.
I’ve also cried over the various Harry Potter books, particularly 5 and 7.
And I cried so hard when my 1st grade teacher read the ending of Charlotte’s Web that I haven’t touched the book sense.
Many books by Karen Kingsbury have had me bawling…and I don’t cry all that much. Those are also some of my favorite books since they wrung such emotion from me.
Hmmm–the tables are turned. I almost always cry when I read fiction, especially now in my “old age.”
Wait–maybe you aren’t crying because your books end with the murderer being taken off to jail in cuffs, whereas what I’m reading may involve someone making a life-altering change or a long slow arduous death or something.
But seriously, even if everything ends up well, I just feel that surge of emotion at the end of a great book as it’s wrapped up, and there are often tears, or at the very least, a large lump in my throat.
And Amanda is figuring out her thoughts on “those kinds” of books as well. She was reading Bridge to
Terabithia, then saw the movie at a friend’s house, so she didn’t finish it because it was “sad.”
I’ve never read some of the books mentioned but I have seen the movies and they all made me cry. I’m a big sap.
The one book that I can really recall making me sob something awful was The Patriots by Jack Cavanaugh. One brother sacrifices himself to save the other brother. I was crying so hard I remember I had to stop reading. But it is my favorite book in that series.
And I can’t read any of the Chicken Soup for your Soul books without getting teary eyed.
Oh, yes, books have made me cry. One in particular was “Talk Before Sleep” by Elizabeth Berg. I had to explain to my family that nothing was truly wrong in my life, it was just that the book was so sad!
The House of Sand and Fog did me in-got it with the book and then later the movie.
I couldn’t count the number of books that have made me cry. Sometimes, when a book moves me that much, the feeling of sadness lingers for days with me.
When I read a well-enough written book that I actually begin to feel the characters are real, anything that makes them sad, makes me sad.
I’m a real big sap myself.
Oh yes! Many – those that you mentioned being a few. When I saw my dd crying over one of her books, I told her “Honey, it’s alright. It shows you that the author really knows what they are doing when they can evoke such a strong emotion from you. It shows that it’s a really good book.”
*whisper* I, too, cry when I read “Love You Forever” *sigh*
Oh gosh yes. To Kill a Mockingbird, Where the Red Fern Grows, A Separate Peace just to name a few from my childhood. I still bawl like a baby when I read them now – and I’m 39 years old!
Most recently, The Dogs of Babel and Marley and Me. As a dog person, these books really got me. Marley and Me had me sobbing beyound control.`
I think lots of books have made me teary over the years even if I didn't cry….but I read Where the Red Fern Grows as an adult and I did cry then! Love You Forever always makes me teary; we've given baby blessings for couples at church and one of our neighbors read/sings it and it makes me teary!
When my oldest son was in 4th or 5th grade he began to have nightmares, about something happening to his parents like in war. We couldn't figure out what was going on….later on we found out he'd been reading The Rise & Fall of the 3rd Reich at school & the nightmares were about something happening to us!
Oh.My.Gracious. Yes I cry–those Hallmark commercials are not the only things that get me!! One book in particular that had me sobbing was, A Lantern in Her Hand–I think the ending was just hitting so very close to home in comparison to the life stage I was entering at the time.
I also made the huge mistake of reading Where the Red Fern Grows out loud to my two youngest boys, a few years ago. I will never forget the two of them sitting/laying on my bed with me–(I was recuperating from surgery at the time)–while I read the end of that book, tears streaming down my face at first, turning into body wracking sobs. When I read the book as a child I cried for the boy and for his dogs, when I read it to my boys, I sobbed for the boy’s mother! My perspective of the characters had changed drastically. I decided right then and there I would not be making my boys read Ole Yeller–and we have come to call those kinds of books, “dead dog stories”!
Also cried reading These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder, when I re-read the series 3 years ago.
Oh, the joys of reading!
*smiles*
Kim
I found your blog through the “Blogher” ads at Rocks in My Dryer. I’m like your son–I hate crying over anything, but there are a few books that get me every time:
Anne of Green Gables, when Matthew dies (I also cry every time at that part in the movie). I also cried the first time I ever read Rilla of Ingleside, when one of the main characters gets killed. The end of The Railway Children, when Bobby screams “My Daddy, my Daddy!”–sheesh, I can’t even think about that part without choking up.
And the one I’m most embarrassed about: I cried when reading Star Wars: Vector Prime, ’cause the author killed off Chewbacca! My taste for Star Wars novels dried up drastically after that …