I just finished reading John Green's "The Fault in our Stars", and I found I got a lot of funny looks because I ended up crying over it in public. Don't laugh at me, as I know some people really like books that make them cry. So here are other books that will also wrench your heart, some aimed at children, others at teens or adults, some are fiction, others are nonfiction. They will all make people stare at you in public.
The Fault in our stars by John Green. Hazel Grace Lancaster
has stave IV thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. Having accepting her
impending death, she meets Augustus Waters at a cancer support group. They are
normal teens falling in love, yet also dealing with their own mortality and all
the humiliations that come with dying. Sarcastic, witty, and deeply romantic, I
dare you not to cry.
Going Bovine by Libba Bray. All 16-year-old Cameron wants is
to get through high school-and life in general-with a minimum of effort. It's
not a lot to ask. But that's before he's given some bad news: he's sick and
he's going to die from mad cow disease. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in
the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad
sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure-if he's willing to go in search of
it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam
sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the
heart of what matters most.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. At the end of the summer
before she enters high school, Melinda attends a party where she is raped.
Shocked and scared, she calls the police, who break up the party and send
everyone home. She tells no one of her rape, and the other students, even her
best friends, turn against her for under-mining their good time. By the time
school starts, she is completely alone, and utterly desolate. Few people
penetrate her shell; one of them is Mr. Freeman, her art teacher, who works
with her to help her express what she has so deeply repressed. When the
unthinkable happens--the same upperclassman who raped her at the party attacks
her again.
Marley and Me: Life and love with the world’s worst dog by
John Grogan. A memoir of Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Grogan's life
with his yellow Labrador retriever: John and Jen are journalists who are a
newly married couple. Marley is the adopted puppy that no one wants, a
high-strung lab who is virtually untrainable. Marley shreds cushions, destroys
floors and walls and most everything in between. Instead of taking him to the
pound, they love their dog and he faithfully loves them in return.
The Glass Castle: A memoir by Jeanette Walls. Jeannette
Walls grew up with parents whose stubborn nonconformity was both their curse
and their salvation. They started off living like nomads, moving throughout the
Southwest. Her father was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured
his children's imagination. Her mother, who painted and wrote, called herself
an "excitement addict." As the dysfunction of the family escalated,
Jeannette and her siblings had to learn to fend for themselves.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. Oct. 11th, 1943—A British
spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best
friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game
before it's barely begun. When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she lives a
spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal
her mission or face a grisly execution. As she intricately weaves her
confession, Verity uncovers her past, and how she became friends with the pilot
Maddie. But how much is she really
revealing to the Nazis? Harrowing and beautifully written, this tale of danger, resolve, and survival shows just how
far true friends will go to save each other.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. Things
have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick
Dominican ghetto nerd. From his home in New Jersey, where he lives with his
old-world mother and rebellious sister, Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican
J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what
he wants, thanks to the Fukœ-the curse that has haunted the Oscar's family for
generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all,
ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most
recent victim.
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. A loving
threesome, the boy and his two dogs ranged the dark hills and river bottoms of
Cherokee country going coon hunting. Old Dan had the brawn. Little Ann had the
brains, and Billy had the will to make them into the finest hunting team in the
valley. Glory and victory were coming to them, but tragedy came when they faced
the mountain lion.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. This is the
story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian.
They met when Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and she threw her shoe at
him.They married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible
but true: Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement
Disorder. Periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced
in time, disappearing spontaneously for experiences alternately amusing and
increasingly harrowing.
The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. All summer,
Jess pushed himself to be the fastest boy in the fifth grade, to win the year's
first school-yard race. But his victory was stolen by a new girl, one who
didn't even know enough to stay on the girls' side of the playground. Then
unexpectedly, Jess finds himself sticking up for Leslie, for the girl who
breaks rules and wins races. Their friendship grows as Jess guides her through
the pitfalls of life in their small, rural town, and Leslie draws him into her
imaginary world: a world of magic called Terabithia. Here, Leslie and Jess
rule, safe from the bullies and ridicule of the mundane world. Safe until
tragedy forces Jess to reign in Terabithia alone.
Little Bee by Chris Cleave. I DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU TOO
MUCH ABOUT THIS BOOK. It is a truly special story and I don't want to spoil it.
Nevertheless, you need to know something, so I will just say this: It is
extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific. The story starts
there, but the book doesn't. And it's what happens afterward that is most
important. Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When
you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it
unfolds.
Anne Frank: The diary of a young girl. In 1942, with Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, they and another family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annex" of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. Her diary was discovered after her capture and death.
-Kathy, using Seattle Public Library's list as abase: http://seattle.bibliocommons.com/list/show/86922331_seattle_quick_picks/124572856_tearjerkers_-_books_guaranteed_to_make_you_cry
