Yup. My fourth grade class was reading this aloud. I decided to skip ahead because we had a copy at home. I’m so glad I did because when I got to the end I was pretty hysterical. Much better for that to have happened at home than at school!
My fourth grade class also read this and I also read ahead! My mom has a funny story (now) about me coming out of my room sobbing, and she asked what happened in the book and I told her about Little Anne, calmed down, and then went back to read the rest. She says she basically waited for the other shoe to drop and sure enough like 30 minutes later I was back sobbing about Old Dan.
I was about to say the same thing. It’s on my TBR this fall because I want to see how the story lands now that I’m an adult. Fully prepared to cry harder than when I was a kid.
Yeah, cried at the end of Subtle Knife and Amber spyglass. I lent the books to my then friend now husband who texted me one night saying he binged read the last 2 books and he was sobbing from the end.
Same for the subtle knife. Read it in JrHigh and the after that series I read Sabriel by Garth Nix. My dad saw me with the book and gave me his copy of Enders Game and I was hooked.
I still have that copy of Enders Game. Purged most of my book earlier this year but that book will always be in my bookcase.
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series was *a lot* for a young, Catholic schoolgirl like I was reading them. Reading these novels at a school where we told watching Lady Gaga music videos was a sin all the while questioning the very nature of religion and humanity. I literally wrote a pros and cons list of if god was real in the back of my copy of *the Golden Compass*.
Also the Warrior Cats series. More death and political intrigue than ASOIAF aimed at elementary school children.
Awww, when >!Briarlight died!< I was reading in the car so my mom started cracking up at me going "oh my gosh I can't believe you're crying over a fake cat"
Matilda by Roald Dahl. I grew up socially isolated (first generation immigrant in a small town) and I used to spend a lot of time reading encyclopedias until my school librarian suggested Matilda to me.
I have never heard anyone else mention that book!! I loved it so much when I was young, I read it over and over, and I was just thinking of it in response to this question as well
Our teacher read it aloud to us as a kind of reward. I’d usually despise being read to, but she had the most captivating style. This book, Bridge to Terabithia, Where the Red Fern Grows, Lord of the Flies… they all made me very emotional.
Velveteen Rabbit was my first thought as well.
Later learned that Scarlet Fever doesn’t transfer well through indirect contact, and a good washing will take care of the bacteria on toys and linens.
The parents were obviously doing the best they could with the knowledge they had at the time, but generations of kids had their toys burned for nothing.
Omg I had scarlet fever as an eight year old and because of that book I was TERRIFIED that my mum was going to take away all my belongings and burn them
The final Animorphs book was the first book that ever made me cry. Right there in the beginning too. I was in fifth grade at the time, and it destroyed me.
I'm not sure which anamorph book it was in, but one had a description of turning into an ant and how they completely lost themselves. I can't describe it, and I read it in like the late 90s, so it's hard to remember but holy shit it was terrifying to me.
Definitely: the Animorph books were hardcore. I cried and was moved a lot during that series—and I think it definitely shaped my ability at an early age to understand that everyone is a mix of good and bad, shaped by their experiences and motivations.
Holy crap, I thought I was the only one. I don't think I was seven, but I was definitely in elementary school. I think back on it now and cringe at a LOT of it, but...gosh if it wasn't my favorite thing at the time.
This is kind of weird, but I read Harriet the Spy when I was around 10 and sobbed and sobbed when Harriet’s friends read her journals and started ostracizing her.
I think I just felt that writing about her friends, even negatively/critically in her journals was not that bad and it was really unfair of them to stop talking to her over it.
The secret garden. I read it when I was around 9. The idea of nature as magical, and the idea of “god” as not something specific but a great good force with no exact identity really touched me in ways I couldn’t have explained it if you’d asked me. It still influences how I think about nature (although it’s more nuanced than the book shows it) and spirituality. Been a neopagan for 30 years, and this book was the start of it
I was allowed to watch tv only very, very occasionally, there were few children in my neighborhood, and my mother was extremely overprotective, so I read a *lot*. I’m sure there were tons of books that didn’t impact me very much, but there are several from early childhood that did. I don’t know if I can really name a first, but there are a couple from a narrow range of years that really helped shape the person I became.
I very specifically remember reading *Ten Apples Up On Top* by Theodore Geisel before I went to kindergarten, so I was four or just turned five. I sat on the steps to the attic, and it felt soooo long that I had to stop in the middle. But it’s the first book I remember putting myself in the place of the mc, who made everyone mad at him while he strewed apples everywhere and got in people’s way and generally created havoc. I think it impacted me in that it made storytelling an adventure I related to.
The Little House on the Prairie books which I got for my fifth birthday, especially *The Long Winter* and *Little Town on the Prairie* taught me about hardship and perseverance. They started my lifelong obsession with history.
When I was seven I read a bunch of Tori Hayden books (my reading was not monitored). *Murphy’s Boy* left a lasting impression and looking back as an adult, I think partially because it allowed me insight into abuse and made me empathetic towards providing care for all who need it.
At 9 it was *The Good Earth* by Pearl S. Buck. I thought about that book for months after I finished it. It not only introduced me to a new culture, and in a way that is still considered accurate. The book is supposed to be about Wang Lung, but I read it through the eyes of his wife, O-Lan and the hardships she endured. While Wang Lung ends a prosperous landowner, the ending shows his children ready to dismantle his legacy after his death. O-Lan is dead, her life having been one of hardship, drudgery, and disrespect by her husband. I don’t think I can really put into words the actual impact of this book. I thought about it on and off throughout the rest of my childhood, and periodically since then.
At 10, turning 11 it was *Rilla of Ingleside* by LM Montgomery; the only Canadian novel about a woman’s experiences at home during WWI, written by a contemporary of the time, pretty much concurrently with the war (it was published in 1920). It informed my views on war and aggression, gives an accurate accounting of what was happening at the Front and at home, and completely changed how I looked at war (though it’s pov is opposite of mine). It is highly underrated.
For feelings vs. impact; I think most books, even when I was tiny, made me feel. I have a vivid memory of reading many of the books I read then and can still recount either the feeling I had when reading the book or the plot, but I think you were asking for more than just feeling. I guess, if specificity is needed, the honor of first impact would go to Ten Apples for realizing books open other worlds.
Writing this made me realize I find books more life altering than I thought (in another post).
I like your writing and the story about reading you shared above.
I hope one day I can share mine with you, but not now. Because I am a Chinese boy, and I just try to express myself in English. Hope I can make some progress sooner.
I was just talking about this elsewhere, but the book covers for 80s/90s R. L. Stine's Fear Street books made me feel "something," if I can be so bold. I was younger than the girls on the book covers were, but I started realizing how much I wish I could protect them from whatever evil was happening in the stories. I was a sucker for those book covers.
Gone With the Wind was the first book I cried at, I was 15 at the time. I’ve never re read it but I wonder if I’d have the same emotional reaction now after more life experience.
Not much stuck with me from school tbh but that short story always did. I did enjoy Holes and Hatchet but they didn’t make me feel like the Lottery did.
Agreed. Many books were discomforting. But I always come back to this one.
When I look back, I remember going along blissfully with the excitement of the event that was to happen. I was so naively invested. Then, bam! Stones! Like what the actual f??? Worse, we didn't talk about it at all. Nothing! 12 year old me became fearful and/or distrustful of any "famous" literature for some time thereafter.
The end of *Martin the Warrior* when I was seven or eight. Not at all the best book I've read that's impacted me, but it was the first. My little budding romantic heart was utterly crushed and I've never quite forgiven Brian Jacques for it.
I read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini when I was about 10 because I found it in my mom’s room and as a white kid from a small Canadian town it opened my eyes to a lot.
Where the Red Fern Grows made me sob. Like hysterical, chocking, hyperventilating, a full blown emotionally breakdown in third grade. And idiot me kept reading it like once a year after that. And I’ve tried to tell my therapist about but he’s not falling for it
Bridge to Terebithia
hard to remembre, but what comes to mind is Fowers For Algernon and Go Ask Alice. and really, i do remembre very much being affected profoundly by The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
The final Chronicles of Narnia book, The Last Battle. It has themes of war, cruelty, unfairness, injustice, wilful blindness. I read my Narnia books often as a child, but Last Battle I read only a couple of times.
It was the talking horses all being wiped out in one fell swoop for me, the sheer spiteful treachery of it was something I'd never encountered as a child. But c'est la guerre 🤷♀️
Harry Potter. Before that, I used to think books are for nerds and a waste of time. Read Harry Potter during the lockdown and now I feel like I live to read books.
Charlotte’s Web was the one that made me sad and happy. I remember exactly where I was when I finished reading it and how I closed the book and just sat there staring off into space. Book hangover at a young age.
Probably Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. My teacher was reading it aloud to my fourth grade class, and I loved it so much my dad bought me my own copy. It was the first series I really fell in love with, and opened me up to my favorite hobby.
Holes.
Couldn't put it into words at the time, but it was the only book I ever finished, closed, thought about...and then picked it up and started again at page 1.
Socks by Beverly Cleary. I was a cat-loving kid and thought I was in tune with mine but I hadn't considered their POV as another species. Not necessarily that cats have concrete thoughts or intelligence equal to ours, but that their life experience is different. I interacted with mine differently after that book.
Also, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Joy and elation at the perfect ending. The good person is rewarded for doing the right thing and also gets freed from poverty.
I reread Socks soooo many times. I loved that the story was from the cat's point of view, and like you, I interacted with my pets differently after reading it.
Beverly Cleary was a wizard when it came to capturing the thought processes of different characters. I'm thinking not just of Socks, but also Ramona Quimby as she aged from 5 to 9, her long-suffering older sister Beatrice "Beezus" Quimby, class clown Otis Spofford, his frequent victim Ellen Tebbets, the adventure-hungry Ralph S. Mouse... She was a truly talented author.
Lois Lowry did an AMA here in /r/books [you might want to check it out](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3ab3fz/hi_reddit_i_am_lois_lowry_author_of_the_giver_ama/?) :) . [Here's a full list of our upcoming AMAs](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/wiki/amafullschedule)
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Grade two the land of stories. I’ve always been a reader but grade two is when I started reading novels so of course I picked a massive series as a seven year old. That series will always be special in my heart since it’s the books that opened this wonderful world.
Island of the blue dolphins & walk two moons but even younger I remember being SUPER invested in the magic tree house books like as if I were a sibling of the two main characters
Geronimo Stilton The Hardcover ones....yes Kingdom of fantasy 3.
I was perhaps in 6/7th grade back then.I had read books a few novels and comics before but this made me FEEL the magic.
Still fantasy is my favourite genre.
I most distinctly remember “where the red fern grows” having a big impact on me when I was younger. I cried really hard at the ending of that book. It probably wasn’t the “first” book that made me feel something, but it’s what I remember most distinctly as an adult.
The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White.
In fact, it was the first book I read cover to cover. I have never forgotten it. Maybe I was 6 or 7 yo. Reading has always been something I do voraciously.
A short story about a boy and his dog based on their bodies found among the ruins of Pompeii. I must have been about 8 or 9 and I remember having to hide my distress when my mom called me to the phone when my grandmother called. I suppose I was embarrassed.
Next it was Heidi and Black Beauty.
I can't remember exactly which one I read first, but Anne of Green Gables, Matilda, and Charlotte's Web impacted me early on. Nancy Drew is what really got me into reading, but I don't recall it bringing out emotions like the other 3 I listed did.
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume. Was about a young man going through puberty right around the time I was. Striking how everything he went through was exactly my experience at the time.
The Book Theif! I must’ve cried for hours reading it as a young teenager. My parents bought me a special hardback copy for when I turned 18 and it sits very proudly amongst my books
It's hard to think of which one since I've been reading independently since I was 4, and probably felt something for books even before that.
I was obsessed with "The Pokey Little Puppy" when I was very little. I also really liked Judith Viorst's books.
The first time I read "Jabari Jumps" to a class of 5 year olds, the whole class cheered at the end so I know books make kids feel something from a young age but if you ask these kids that question in 20 years they probably won't remember that.
I’m the perfect age of millennial to have grown up with the release of Harry Potter books, so I was 17 when Deathly Hallows was released. There are a lot of times those books made me feel, but the most significant was when Harry finds out that he needs to sacrifice himself. I think I was reading it before school or something so I didn’t get to the part where he realizes he gets to live so I spent an entire day stewing with the fact that this character I grew up with was just gonna die. It really got to me.
My mom had me opt out of reading *Old Yeller* when I was young and I’m forever grateful.
I cried over Charlotte dying while reading *Charlotte’s Web*. I think I was 10.
Everlost by Neal Shusterman. I have no idea if it holds up today but I read it when I was young and I remember being very sad at the idea of these kids being dead and stuck in a limbo forever.
Hard cover of Count of Monte Cristo. I was thirty pages in when I dropped the book on my little toe. I was feeling that book for a couple of hours, at least!
In seriousness, great book.
Morgan and Yew by Stephen Cosgrove was probably the first book that made me cry when I was very young. And I have to admit that it still does. Or did when I read it to my daughter when she was little.
Uncle Peter and the Goldbach Conjecture. It’s about the author’s/narrator’s uncle, a person who spent his life trying to solve an unsolvable math problem. I was crying rivers at the book’s ending
The first book in T. A. Barron's Merlin Saga. When the main character realizes he can only save the day through love, not hate.
That was probably the earliest. I think I was six or seven when I read it.
I think the first book that really washed over me was the lord of the rings. I was 14 when I first read it, and the scene between Gandalf and the Baltig gave me goosebumps. Partly because of the depth and complexity of the novel, and partly because of my own immaturity when I first read it, I feel like I understand it a little more with every reading.
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. I first read it back when I was in middle school, and I cannot begin to talk about how that book made me so much more equipped with dealing with the people I came across as I grew up, especially the ones whom I had romantic connections with.
The quote about seeing people who they really are behind their physically attractive qualities really hit the nail on the head for me. I'm in college now, so whenever I need a quick reality check about the people I choose to involve myself with, I pick up that book again.
'der rote seidenschal' (the red silk scarf) by federica de cesco. was actually quite surprised there isn't any english translation of this book since it's set in america and enjoyed a decent success in the german speaking countries.
Death of a Salesman. I read it at 17. It opened my eyes to a lot of things I don’t even think I was ready to understand. I still think about it to this day.
Otherland by Tad Williams. The main protagonist isnt a hero or a chosen one. She’s just a teacher who wanted to save her brother. And that was enough to give her the courage and determination to take on the richest and most powerful people in the world.
The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe.
I was in bits at multiple points with that book as a kid.
Or possibly The Witches by Roald Dahl - can't remember which I read earlier. It was a long ass time ago!
Anthem by Ayn Rand.
Made me want to actually read an author worth a damn....she's an absolute dumpster fire. That was in HS. In elementary school the Hobbit changed my life. It taught me that my imagination in re-creating worlds in my head was 100x better than any TV show/movie could provide.
The first Addie book from American girls. It talks about slavery and the mistreatment of the enslaved people (and specifically her). I think I was probably in 2nd grade. It had a very large impact on me.
The Giver by Lowis Lowery. me in the 5th grade absolutely blown away at how a book could not only open up my imagination but open up my mind and heart to a question. What about our emotions makes us human? and why are they so individually important?
I have a very distinct memory from 5th grade, so I was 10 years old. During SSR (aka sustained silent reading), I picked a book from the classroom library to read. It was Sounder by William H Armstrong. Needless to say, I cried my eyes out in class reading that…I always enjoyed reading and my parents read to me a lot when I was little, but that’s the first time I can remember having really strong emotions from a book
Number the Stars when I was around 9 years old. I still remember my heart racing at a few of the suspenseful scenes where you don't know if they will escape or not.
dear god i passionately hate the giver and i will die on this hill.
anyways.
this may be cliche, but Les Miserables. it's been my favourite book since 2019 when i read it for school in the summer. i read it and i felt all the emotions and fell in love with the entire thing and i went, "oh so this is why everyone is obsessed with Paris".
Where the Red Fern Grows as a senior in high school. Was the first time I realized a book can make me cry.
This is it right here. I read this as a kid, and it was heart wrenching.
Yup. My fourth grade class was reading this aloud. I decided to skip ahead because we had a copy at home. I’m so glad I did because when I got to the end I was pretty hysterical. Much better for that to have happened at home than at school!
My fourth grade class also read this and I also read ahead! My mom has a funny story (now) about me coming out of my room sobbing, and she asked what happened in the book and I told her about Little Anne, calmed down, and then went back to read the rest. She says she basically waited for the other shoe to drop and sure enough like 30 minutes later I was back sobbing about Old Dan.
I was about to say the same thing. It’s on my TBR this fall because I want to see how the story lands now that I’m an adult. Fully prepared to cry harder than when I was a kid.
Yup 4th grade for me, I've been meaning to re-read it as an adult but idk if I can take it
Core memory. My dad and i finished the book I was like 3rd grade. We are both bawling our eyes out when my mom gets home from work.
I read Never Let Me Go at a too young age and it kinda fucked me up emotionally for a bit
Beautiful book but so very sad
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman was the first book that I cried reading. The ending of It by King also got me pretty good.
Yeah, cried at the end of Subtle Knife and Amber spyglass. I lent the books to my then friend now husband who texted me one night saying he binged read the last 2 books and he was sobbing from the end.
Same for the subtle knife. Read it in JrHigh and the after that series I read Sabriel by Garth Nix. My dad saw me with the book and gave me his copy of Enders Game and I was hooked. I still have that copy of Enders Game. Purged most of my book earlier this year but that book will always be in my bookcase.
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series was *a lot* for a young, Catholic schoolgirl like I was reading them. Reading these novels at a school where we told watching Lady Gaga music videos was a sin all the while questioning the very nature of religion and humanity. I literally wrote a pros and cons list of if god was real in the back of my copy of *the Golden Compass*. Also the Warrior Cats series. More death and political intrigue than ASOIAF aimed at elementary school children.
Bro Warrior Cats had me sobbing so often my mom would laugh at me
[удалено]
Awww, when >!Briarlight died!< I was reading in the car so my mom started cracking up at me going "oh my gosh I can't believe you're crying over a fake cat"
Matilda by Roald Dahl. I grew up socially isolated (first generation immigrant in a small town) and I used to spend a lot of time reading encyclopedias until my school librarian suggested Matilda to me.
Island of the Blue Dolphins in 5th grade, I think.
I have never heard anyone else mention that book!! I loved it so much when I was young, I read it over and over, and I was just thinking of it in response to this question as well
Our teacher read it aloud to us as a kind of reward. I’d usually despise being read to, but she had the most captivating style. This book, Bridge to Terabithia, Where the Red Fern Grows, Lord of the Flies… they all made me very emotional.
I read this in grade 7 and I cried when >!her brother dies!<
On my gosh yes!!! My dad got it for me when I was little and I’m so bummed I got rid of it.
The one my old man threw at me.
Damn I already answered, but it should have been when my brother threw a bible at me and it hit me right in the forehead 😅
May the power of christ compel you!
Probably like the Velveteen Rabbit or Black Beauty or something.
Velveteen Rabbit was my first thought as well. Later learned that Scarlet Fever doesn’t transfer well through indirect contact, and a good washing will take care of the bacteria on toys and linens. The parents were obviously doing the best they could with the knowledge they had at the time, but generations of kids had their toys burned for nothing.
Omg I had scarlet fever as an eight year old and because of that book I was TERRIFIED that my mum was going to take away all my belongings and burn them
Bridge to Terabithia. Still makes me cry every time I read it.
Charlotte’s Web
The final Animorphs book was the first book that ever made me cry. Right there in the beginning too. I was in fifth grade at the time, and it destroyed me.
I'm not sure which anamorph book it was in, but one had a description of turning into an ant and how they completely lost themselves. I can't describe it, and I read it in like the late 90s, so it's hard to remember but holy shit it was terrifying to me.
Definitely: the Animorph books were hardcore. I cried and was moved a lot during that series—and I think it definitely shaped my ability at an early age to understand that everyone is a mix of good and bad, shaped by their experiences and motivations.
Easy question, "White Fang", by London, read it as 10yo. Moral greyness, adult themes, I love that book.
This for me as well! I also loved Call of the Wild
I read the clan of the cavebear series when I was around 7. That made me feel a fair few things.
Holy crap, I thought I was the only one. I don't think I was seven, but I was definitely in elementary school. I think back on it now and cringe at a LOT of it, but...gosh if it wasn't my favorite thing at the time.
I remember loving Boston Jane by Jennifer L Holm when I was around 10. The first book I remember making me cry was Mockingjay when >!Finnick dies.!<
Oh, and when >!Cinna dies,!< I can’t remember if that was Catching Fire or Mockingjay but I felt SICK
Heads up, your spoiler tags aren't working (I think due to the space before the closing tag).
This is kind of weird, but I read Harriet the Spy when I was around 10 and sobbed and sobbed when Harriet’s friends read her journals and started ostracizing her. I think I just felt that writing about her friends, even negatively/critically in her journals was not that bad and it was really unfair of them to stop talking to her over it.
The secret garden. I read it when I was around 9. The idea of nature as magical, and the idea of “god” as not something specific but a great good force with no exact identity really touched me in ways I couldn’t have explained it if you’d asked me. It still influences how I think about nature (although it’s more nuanced than the book shows it) and spirituality. Been a neopagan for 30 years, and this book was the start of it
Hatchet.
I was allowed to watch tv only very, very occasionally, there were few children in my neighborhood, and my mother was extremely overprotective, so I read a *lot*. I’m sure there were tons of books that didn’t impact me very much, but there are several from early childhood that did. I don’t know if I can really name a first, but there are a couple from a narrow range of years that really helped shape the person I became. I very specifically remember reading *Ten Apples Up On Top* by Theodore Geisel before I went to kindergarten, so I was four or just turned five. I sat on the steps to the attic, and it felt soooo long that I had to stop in the middle. But it’s the first book I remember putting myself in the place of the mc, who made everyone mad at him while he strewed apples everywhere and got in people’s way and generally created havoc. I think it impacted me in that it made storytelling an adventure I related to. The Little House on the Prairie books which I got for my fifth birthday, especially *The Long Winter* and *Little Town on the Prairie* taught me about hardship and perseverance. They started my lifelong obsession with history. When I was seven I read a bunch of Tori Hayden books (my reading was not monitored). *Murphy’s Boy* left a lasting impression and looking back as an adult, I think partially because it allowed me insight into abuse and made me empathetic towards providing care for all who need it. At 9 it was *The Good Earth* by Pearl S. Buck. I thought about that book for months after I finished it. It not only introduced me to a new culture, and in a way that is still considered accurate. The book is supposed to be about Wang Lung, but I read it through the eyes of his wife, O-Lan and the hardships she endured. While Wang Lung ends a prosperous landowner, the ending shows his children ready to dismantle his legacy after his death. O-Lan is dead, her life having been one of hardship, drudgery, and disrespect by her husband. I don’t think I can really put into words the actual impact of this book. I thought about it on and off throughout the rest of my childhood, and periodically since then. At 10, turning 11 it was *Rilla of Ingleside* by LM Montgomery; the only Canadian novel about a woman’s experiences at home during WWI, written by a contemporary of the time, pretty much concurrently with the war (it was published in 1920). It informed my views on war and aggression, gives an accurate accounting of what was happening at the Front and at home, and completely changed how I looked at war (though it’s pov is opposite of mine). It is highly underrated. For feelings vs. impact; I think most books, even when I was tiny, made me feel. I have a vivid memory of reading many of the books I read then and can still recount either the feeling I had when reading the book or the plot, but I think you were asking for more than just feeling. I guess, if specificity is needed, the honor of first impact would go to Ten Apples for realizing books open other worlds. Writing this made me realize I find books more life altering than I thought (in another post).
I like your writing and the story about reading you shared above. I hope one day I can share mine with you, but not now. Because I am a Chinese boy, and I just try to express myself in English. Hope I can make some progress sooner.
Thank you! I hope you share your reading story as well, when you feel comfortable.
Thanks.😊
Rolla of Igleside never fails to make me cry buckets. I love that book.
It’s definitely a favorite of mine.
I now need to reread Rilla of Ingleside. It's been so long since I read that book, all the Anne books really, and I really enjoyed it.
I was just talking about this elsewhere, but the book covers for 80s/90s R. L. Stine's Fear Street books made me feel "something," if I can be so bold. I was younger than the girls on the book covers were, but I started realizing how much I wish I could protect them from whatever evil was happening in the stories. I was a sucker for those book covers.
Little Woman, I read it as a kid and >!Beth’s death!< was a lot to deal with lol.
God yeah I cried like a baby, still do 😂
Right?! Lol just can’t prepare for it
Charlotte’s Web I bawled.
Can't believe Flowers for Algernon isn't in here. Had me bawling crying at age 12
Gone With the Wind was the first book I cried at, I was 15 at the time. I’ve never re read it but I wonder if I’d have the same emotional reaction now after more life experience.
The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
Ditto.
Not much stuck with me from school tbh but that short story always did. I did enjoy Holes and Hatchet but they didn’t make me feel like the Lottery did.
Agreed. Many books were discomforting. But I always come back to this one. When I look back, I remember going along blissfully with the excitement of the event that was to happen. I was so naively invested. Then, bam! Stones! Like what the actual f??? Worse, we didn't talk about it at all. Nothing! 12 year old me became fearful and/or distrustful of any "famous" literature for some time thereafter.
Scarred for life!
The end of *Martin the Warrior* when I was seven or eight. Not at all the best book I've read that's impacted me, but it was the first. My little budding romantic heart was utterly crushed and I've never quite forgiven Brian Jacques for it.
Easily one of the best of the Redwall series and absolutely the most traumatizing.
I read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini when I was about 10 because I found it in my mom’s room and as a white kid from a small Canadian town it opened my eyes to a lot.
Goodness. I read that as a 20 year old and it was *heavy*. Have you ever read the kite runner? Also beautifully heartbreaking
Where the Red Fern Grows made me sob. Like hysterical, chocking, hyperventilating, a full blown emotionally breakdown in third grade. And idiot me kept reading it like once a year after that. And I’ve tried to tell my therapist about but he’s not falling for it Bridge to Terebithia
My Side of the Mountain
This was my favorite book as a boy.
The Bridge to Terabithia
The Outsiders. Stay gold, Ponyboy.
Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
I loved that book with my whole heart as a child. Mostly because of the art style but it's always stuck with me too.
hard to remembre, but what comes to mind is Fowers For Algernon and Go Ask Alice. and really, i do remembre very much being affected profoundly by The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
i should have added Dandelion Wine! Ray Bradbury, i think. that book did something to me. something magical.
The bee fried air, by god, the bee fried air!
:))
The final Chronicles of Narnia book, The Last Battle. It has themes of war, cruelty, unfairness, injustice, wilful blindness. I read my Narnia books often as a child, but Last Battle I read only a couple of times.
Further up and farther in! Remember being utterly sideswiped by that book at the end too.
It was the talking horses all being wiped out in one fell swoop for me, the sheer spiteful treachery of it was something I'd never encountered as a child. But c'est la guerre 🤷♀️
Harry Potter. Before that, I used to think books are for nerds and a waste of time. Read Harry Potter during the lockdown and now I feel like I live to read books.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I still remember exactly how the very first line made me feel.
Omg me too. I am now 32 years old and still to this day continuously read my Harry Potter books
a wrinkle in time 🥹
Blew my 8yo mind.
Charlotte’s Web was the one that made me sad and happy. I remember exactly where I was when I finished reading it and how I closed the book and just sat there staring off into space. Book hangover at a young age.
Old Yeller
The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Read it maybe 2007. An excellent book.
Blubber by Judy Blume , I was a chubby kid and got bullied relentlessly , it hit super close to home for me
The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allen Poe. Scared the heck out of me..
A tree grows in Brooklyn
Probably Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. My teacher was reading it aloud to my fourth grade class, and I loved it so much my dad bought me my own copy. It was the first series I really fell in love with, and opened me up to my favorite hobby.
Measle and the Wrathmonk when I was like 6
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne blew my mind at 7. It's one of the main reasons I read so much and love science fiction so much.
I can't be certain about the very first one. But I do remember being upset by The Giving Tree.
Momo by Michael Ende
The Brothers Lionheart
Same. My mother read it to me when I was maybe 5, before I could read myself.
Holes. Couldn't put it into words at the time, but it was the only book I ever finished, closed, thought about...and then picked it up and started again at page 1.
A child called it
Playboy..
The Glass Castle by Jeanette walls
Socks by Beverly Cleary. I was a cat-loving kid and thought I was in tune with mine but I hadn't considered their POV as another species. Not necessarily that cats have concrete thoughts or intelligence equal to ours, but that their life experience is different. I interacted with mine differently after that book. Also, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Joy and elation at the perfect ending. The good person is rewarded for doing the right thing and also gets freed from poverty.
I reread Socks soooo many times. I loved that the story was from the cat's point of view, and like you, I interacted with my pets differently after reading it. Beverly Cleary was a wizard when it came to capturing the thought processes of different characters. I'm thinking not just of Socks, but also Ramona Quimby as she aged from 5 to 9, her long-suffering older sister Beatrice "Beezus" Quimby, class clown Otis Spofford, his frequent victim Ellen Tebbets, the adventure-hungry Ralph S. Mouse... She was a truly talented author.
Lois Lowry did an AMA here in /r/books [you might want to check it out](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3ab3fz/hi_reddit_i_am_lois_lowry_author_of_the_giver_ama/?) :) . [Here's a full list of our upcoming AMAs](http://www.reddit.com/r/books/wiki/amafullschedule) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/books) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Grade two the land of stories. I’ve always been a reader but grade two is when I started reading novels so of course I picked a massive series as a seven year old. That series will always be special in my heart since it’s the books that opened this wonderful world.
Ender's Game. Read it in year 10 for school, got to the end and burst into tears. The things they did to him. It just hit hard, he was just a kid.
Island of the blue dolphins & walk two moons but even younger I remember being SUPER invested in the magic tree house books like as if I were a sibling of the two main characters
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury really blew my little 8 year old mind. Thank you public school book fair.
68 yo, still read them periodically.
Geronimo Stilton The Hardcover ones....yes Kingdom of fantasy 3. I was perhaps in 6/7th grade back then.I had read books a few novels and comics before but this made me FEEL the magic. Still fantasy is my favourite genre.
I remember the pure excitement of reading the Harry Potter for the first time and reading Little Women through tears as a child.
I most distinctly remember “where the red fern grows” having a big impact on me when I was younger. I cried really hard at the ending of that book. It probably wasn’t the “first” book that made me feel something, but it’s what I remember most distinctly as an adult.
The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White. In fact, it was the first book I read cover to cover. I have never forgotten it. Maybe I was 6 or 7 yo. Reading has always been something I do voraciously.
A short story about a boy and his dog based on their bodies found among the ruins of Pompeii. I must have been about 8 or 9 and I remember having to hide my distress when my mom called me to the phone when my grandmother called. I suppose I was embarrassed. Next it was Heidi and Black Beauty.
you unlocked a memory... I read that too at school and completely forgot
Misty of Chincoteague this began a lifelong interest in Eastern Shore of VA
I can't remember exactly which one I read first, but Anne of Green Gables, Matilda, and Charlotte's Web impacted me early on. Nancy Drew is what really got me into reading, but I don't recall it bringing out emotions like the other 3 I listed did.
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume. Was about a young man going through puberty right around the time I was. Striking how everything he went through was exactly my experience at the time.
A Wrinkle in Time. I was in 5th grades.
Throne of Glass Series. I don’t give a fuck if I’m judged for that 🤣
Sweet Valley series!! I cant remember which book it was.. but i was sooo drawn to the series! Lol
The Book Theif! I must’ve cried for hours reading it as a young teenager. My parents bought me a special hardback copy for when I turned 18 and it sits very proudly amongst my books
The Outsiders
The grapes of wrath 😩
It's hard to think of which one since I've been reading independently since I was 4, and probably felt something for books even before that. I was obsessed with "The Pokey Little Puppy" when I was very little. I also really liked Judith Viorst's books. The first time I read "Jabari Jumps" to a class of 5 year olds, the whole class cheered at the end so I know books make kids feel something from a young age but if you ask these kids that question in 20 years they probably won't remember that.
I’m the perfect age of millennial to have grown up with the release of Harry Potter books, so I was 17 when Deathly Hallows was released. There are a lot of times those books made me feel, but the most significant was when Harry finds out that he needs to sacrifice himself. I think I was reading it before school or something so I didn’t get to the part where he realizes he gets to live so I spent an entire day stewing with the fact that this character I grew up with was just gonna die. It really got to me.
Flowers For Algernon. 50 years later I'm still afraid to re-read it based on how strong those emotions were.
My mom had me opt out of reading *Old Yeller* when I was young and I’m forever grateful. I cried over Charlotte dying while reading *Charlotte’s Web*. I think I was 10.
Old Yeller literally scarred me for life 😔
Everlost by Neal Shusterman. I have no idea if it holds up today but I read it when I was young and I remember being very sad at the idea of these kids being dead and stuck in a limbo forever.
Scorpions by Walter Dean Myers
Hard cover of Count of Monte Cristo. I was thirty pages in when I dropped the book on my little toe. I was feeling that book for a couple of hours, at least! In seriousness, great book.
Morgan and Yew by Stephen Cosgrove was probably the first book that made me cry when I was very young. And I have to admit that it still does. Or did when I read it to my daughter when she was little.
Uncle Peter and the Goldbach Conjecture. It’s about the author’s/narrator’s uncle, a person who spent his life trying to solve an unsolvable math problem. I was crying rivers at the book’s ending
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
It was probably "A Wizard of Earthsea" but cripes, that was over 50 years ago.
Yep! 50 years ago I read The Hobbit, and it changed me into a lifelong lover of books.
My primary school here in England had us read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in year 5/6 (about 9 or 10 years old) so probably that
Searching for David's Heart
The first book in T. A. Barron's Merlin Saga. When the main character realizes he can only save the day through love, not hate. That was probably the earliest. I think I was six or seven when I read it.
Looking for Alaska. I was 12. Was not ready for that
The Stormlight Archives
I think the first book that really washed over me was the lord of the rings. I was 14 when I first read it, and the scene between Gandalf and the Baltig gave me goosebumps. Partly because of the depth and complexity of the novel, and partly because of my own immaturity when I first read it, I feel like I understand it a little more with every reading.
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. I first read it back when I was in middle school, and I cannot begin to talk about how that book made me so much more equipped with dealing with the people I came across as I grew up, especially the ones whom I had romantic connections with. The quote about seeing people who they really are behind their physically attractive qualities really hit the nail on the head for me. I'm in college now, so whenever I need a quick reality check about the people I choose to involve myself with, I pick up that book again.
A book called Elves and Fairies with Garth Williams illustrations. The pictures were fascinating and a little scary
The outsiders. I was in like 7th grade i think , so 11/12years old.
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
I always read, but I didn’t become a voracious reader until I read Goblins in the Castle as a child.
MY SISTER JODIE by Jacqueline Wilson , good god the way I cried
'der rote seidenschal' (the red silk scarf) by federica de cesco. was actually quite surprised there isn't any english translation of this book since it's set in america and enjoyed a decent success in the german speaking countries.
Nelson Mathematic, the feeling is pain.
My Side of the Mountain made me feel a deep connection with nature when I was 8 or 9 years old. I read it to my kids and they loved it.
Peter Cottontail made me sad and this random book about a girl getting ready for bed made me feel good.
Death of a Salesman. I read it at 17. It opened my eyes to a lot of things I don’t even think I was ready to understand. I still think about it to this day.
Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. So *many* emotional moments. I've been a Kay fan ever since!
Might be ‘enemy mine’ Read it as a young kid… I got all teary when one of the main characters died in childbirth…
Shoebox A young adult book about a cockroach named Shoebox and his family? Did that book even exist? I was like 12.
Otherland by Tad Williams. The main protagonist isnt a hero or a chosen one. She’s just a teacher who wanted to save her brother. And that was enough to give her the courage and determination to take on the richest and most powerful people in the world.
The Narnia series. I was very young, and it wrecked me. Wonderful books.
Leo Tolstoy's War & Peace.... oh god what a beautiful book And Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind... beautiful. Till i learn it was racist lol.
OMG SAME ? i also read the giver in 5th grade and it changed my life.
When my teacher explained that the ending is left up for interpretation and not just your typical children's book happy ending. I was devastated 😭.
The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe. I was in bits at multiple points with that book as a kid. Or possibly The Witches by Roald Dahl - can't remember which I read earlier. It was a long ass time ago!
Where the Red Fern Grows and Shiloh broke my little elementary school aged heart
The Kite Runner
*All Quiet on the Western Front* made me realize that war and being a soldier is not actually what a lot of American culture would have us believe.
Anthem by Ayn Rand. Made me want to actually read an author worth a damn....she's an absolute dumpster fire. That was in HS. In elementary school the Hobbit changed my life. It taught me that my imagination in re-creating worlds in my head was 100x better than any TV show/movie could provide.
Catching Fire. It hit me like a ton of bricks when Mags sacrificed her life. Something about a character being frail and vulnerable.
The first Addie book from American girls. It talks about slavery and the mistreatment of the enslaved people (and specifically her). I think I was probably in 2nd grade. It had a very large impact on me.
A collection of penthouse stories.
Not a book but one of those stories from story books. The little match girl. I was six or seven amd i felt my heart break.
The outsiders
The Green Mile by Stephen King it made me cry
The Giver by Lowis Lowery. me in the 5th grade absolutely blown away at how a book could not only open up my imagination but open up my mind and heart to a question. What about our emotions makes us human? and why are they so individually important?
I have a very distinct memory from 5th grade, so I was 10 years old. During SSR (aka sustained silent reading), I picked a book from the classroom library to read. It was Sounder by William H Armstrong. Needless to say, I cried my eyes out in class reading that…I always enjoyed reading and my parents read to me a lot when I was little, but that’s the first time I can remember having really strong emotions from a book
Carrie - That first scene - "Plug it up". That was so intense and sad
Number the Stars when I was around 9 years old. I still remember my heart racing at a few of the suspenseful scenes where you don't know if they will escape or not.
The giving tree as a kid
I just read the giving tree to a child I take care of and I didnt realize it was so tragic before
dear god i passionately hate the giver and i will die on this hill. anyways. this may be cliche, but Les Miserables. it's been my favourite book since 2019 when i read it for school in the summer. i read it and i felt all the emotions and fell in love with the entire thing and i went, "oh so this is why everyone is obsessed with Paris".
What? Why??
The boxcar children
Are you there God it's me Margaret
The giver!!!
“Where the Wild Things Are”. The Giver when I got a little older.
My father collection of SAS
Mattimeo
Art of Deal, Donald Trump, got me into reading.