Crybaby

I finished A Thousand Splendid Suns and wow, what a good book! I was up until 1:00 this morning crying like a loon on the couch, actually mourning fictional characters. I love a book that grabs you and doesn't let go until the end and I always remember the ones that make me cry. The first time I cried over a book I was in the fourth or fifth grade reading Anne of Green Gables. It was the part where Matthew Cuthbert dies. What a delicious surprise, to find that a book could break your heart.

I don't like crying in front of my class, though. An emotional minefield is Thank You, Mr. Falker, by Patricia Polacco. I read it to my second graders last year and had to stop and compose myself--blowing my nose, concentrated breathing, thinking happy thoughts--just so I could go on. Twice. The dumb thing (and the reason I probably won't make a repeat performance) is that they don't really get it. It's only teachers who cry at Thank You, Mr. Falker (because we all want to be Mr. Falker), so in the end, you just look like a blubbering idiot in front of 22 eight-year-olds. Maybe this year in fifth grade I'll do Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and I'll do it well enough that they'll all be crying with me.

Which books make you cry? Thanks for reading my blog!