Books that will make your kid cry — in the best way
The books kids never forget are the ones that made them feel everything. These five are the good-cry classics — quick, real, and worth the tissues. Here's where to find each.
Best for grades 3–7 · big-feelings reads.
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by Katherine Paterson · Grades 4th–6th · 163 pages · 1977
163 pages. A Newbery winner. The ending will wreck them — in the best way.
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by Katherine Applegate · Grades 3th–7th · 320 pages · 2012
A gorilla, a baby elephant, and a friendship that won the Newbery. Tears guaranteed.
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by John Reynolds Gardiner · Grades 3th–5th · 96 pages · 1980
96 pages. A boy, a dog, a sled race to save the farm. They'll finish it crying.
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by Sharon M. Draper · Grades 4th–7th · 295 pages · 2010
A brilliant girl with cerebral palsy no one bothers to hear. Same gut-punch as Wonder.
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by E.B. White · Grades 3th–5th · 184 pages · 1952
The friendship — and the goodbye — every kid remembers for the rest of their life.
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