The Enid Blyton Society

I really enjoyed The Parent Trap when I first saw it with Hayley Mills in the role of the twins. I did see a bit of the later version but it wasn't as appealing to me. I have never read the book though - not sure I was ever aware there was a book!

Lindsay Lohan's version is a decent enough film I think but if you'd seen the Hayley Mills version first you'd probably think it not as good. I didn't know it was based on a book either.

I should think that the most touching book for me would be Ranjit Lal's Taklu and Shroom or Ruskin Bond's The Blue Umbrella (not the whole book actually but the line -

She left the old man with the umbrella, and went tripping down the road, and there was nothing between her and the bright blue sky.

That line really moves me whenever I read it. But for Taklu and Shroom the whole of it was quite emotional.

The end of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalil Hosseini was very moving I thought. Other than that The Grapes of Wrath is one which is very touching.

Daisy wrote:I really enjoyed The Parent Trap when I first saw it with Hayley Mills in the role of the twins. I did see a bit of the later version but it wasn't as appealing to me. I have never read the book though - not sure I was ever aware there was a book!

I love the Hayley Mills, Maureen O'Hara version, managed to watch about 10 minutes of the remake before heading for the "off" button... I didn't know there was a book.

Mehul wrote:I should think that the most touching book for me would be Ranjit Lal's Taklu and Shroom or Ruskin Bond's The Blue Umbrella (not the whole book actually but the line -

She left the old man with the umbrella, and went tripping down the road, and there was nothing between her and the bright blue sky.

That line really moves me whenever I read it. But for Taklu and Shroom the whole of it was quite emotional.

Ruskin Bond!, how that takes me back - he is a resident of Landour (Mussoorie) and recipient of the Padma Shri civilian honour award - the only other literary connection I know of is the famous novelist Anita Desai who was also born in Mussoorie

I think two of the most touching books I've ever read were "Mon ami Frédéric" (My friend Frederick, original German title: "Damals war es Friedrich" published in 1961) by German author Hans Peter Richter which depicts the friendship between a boy who is an alter ego of the author and a Jewish boy named Friedrich during World War II. The second one is a 1992 published novel by Swedish author Peter Pohl: "Du fehlst mir, du fehlst mir" (I miss you, I miss you) and describes the painful new existence of a girl who lost her twin. Both are heartwrenching stories!

Mine would probably be Mud City, and The Book Thief.

Mine are, (the ones I remember now)
The Book Thief
It was Midnight in Bhopal (I don't know the title in English)
Private Peaceful
And.....
The Man in the Iron Mask. OK, I know what you'll probably think but this book made me cry for hours.

I agree with the Rubadub mystery being very touching, I also think Her Benny was heart wrenching but I think the most touching book I have read is Twopence to cross the Mersey. It was heart breaking.

I don't know what my "most touching book" ever would be, but now that this thread's come back up, I must put in a word for Listen to the Moon by Michael Morpurgo, which I read earlier this year. There's a heart-wrenching scene of tragedy and loss in it, and even though I twigged beforehand that it was going to happen — I won't spoil the plot, but it became clear a few chapters earlier what historic event this was based on — I cried when it got to that part. I don't cry too often with books (or movies), but I did with this one.

Stephen wrote: ↑15 Aug 2014, 09:51 'Dogger' by Shirley Hughes, where the little boy loses his cuddly toy at a jumble sale and then spots it up for sale. I can still vividly recall to this day how upsetting and scary that was to me as a child. And even though there's a happy ending, there was a pessimist in me even back then, because I'd be thinking what if this happened to me in real life and there WASN'T a happy ending?

I had never heard of this book until recently - it's really rather good.
You can glance over the pdf version for a little while here:

Dogger by Shirley Hughes pdf:
https://www.stgilesstgeorgesacademy.co. ... er-PDF.pdf

Thanks Pete,
and I agree that it really is quite good. Another similar book is the "Velveteen Bunny", but it is told from the perspective of the toy rabbit, which brought tears to my eyes, although it does have a happy ending!

Heidi is the book that made cry, as a child, no matter how often I read it. I still love it and occasionally read it as an adult & it still makes me cry.

pete9012S wrote: ↑02 Nov 2021, 12:27
I had never heard of this book until recently - it's really rather good.

I absolutely love Dogger (and the rest of Shirley Hughes' books). I bought a copy of Dogger for Brodie before he was even born