I *sobbed* at the end of Where The Red Fern Grows. That book was UPSETTING.
It was also like the third book I'd read that year in school where the protagonist's best friend or beloved pet dies. There was that one, Bridge to Terabithia and I think The Yearling.
I *sobbed* at the end of Where The Red Fern Grows. That book was UPSETTING.
My teacher read this aloud to us, after lunch and recess. When we got to the end, there were lots of sniffles in class.
There's a whole sub-sub-sub genre in children's fic of Dead Dog Books.
flea, have you decided what to do?
I remember one of my college roommates often harping on how the opening of
Babar
had traumatized her for life. So you never know. (Mostly I was traumatized when I gave it to my friend S and in reading it to her son realized how bad the standard translation was.)
Our elementary librarian decided that reading WtRFG was not enough and so showed the movie to each class. TRAUMATIZED.
Ha, I had to google WtRG. I was like, "Walter the Red Farting Dog? No..."
I am still not over reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry in 5th grade.
Bridge to Terabethia was pretty traumatic.
I'd never even heard of Bridge to Terabethia the book, so when I saw the movie (in my late 30s!), I was traumatized. And then stunned that it was a YA book.
Bridge to Terabithia
and
A Taste of Blackberries
both stunned me as a kid. "What do you mean Leslie's/Jamie's dead? Like DEAD dead? No way!" I'm not sure if they were accomplishing what they were supposed to - introducing the concept of death and how to deal, or if they just helped to set me on my current path of avoiding stuff with sad endings like my life depended on it. (Never read
Where the Red Fern Grows, Sounder, The Yearling,
etc. - forewarned was/is forearmed, yo).
"Where The Red Fern Grows" was THE most upsetting book I read before age 12, and I was reading all KINDS of crazy stuff with sex, violence, death and monsters.
OMG, NO KIDDING.
BUCKETS. BUCKETS OF WEEPING TEARS.
Our grade 3 teacher read it aloud to the class. The class pretty much excused themselves en masse to go weep uncontrollably in the bathroom.