Where the Red Fern Grows named by readers as an early book that 'destroyed' them

I don’t know if it was the very first but the one that comes to mind immediately is the dogs in Where The Red Fern Grows that book fucked me up real bad as a kid

I have said this before, but my fourth grade teacher read Bridge to Terabithia and Where the Red Fern Grows out loud to my class, presumably because she enjoyed the sound of sobbing children. And I was a read-ahead kid. I knew what was coming both times and got hit by each book twice.

The first… hm. Charlotte in Charlotte’s Web was probably second grade? But there are several from that 7–10 age range. Leslie in Bridge to Terebithia, Old Dan and Little Ann in Where the Red Fern Grows, Ellidyr in Taran Wanderer. Hazel at the very end of Watership Down (I am teary just typing that)

Where The Red Fern Grows. First with the kid who died from the axe, second was Old Dan and Little Ann. 💔💔💔

Littlefoot’s mom, but I think the first time I remember CRYING was the end of Where the Red Fern Grows

Where the Red Fern Grows was my first thought too. I’m pretty sure I swore off reading for a bit after that.

the first book I remember reading that destroyed me was "where the red fern grows" I was scream-sobbing for well over an hour at 9 years old

This is tough. Probably the dogs in “Where the Red Fern Grows”?

My mom said I was catatonic after reading where the red fern grows. I cried for days then didn’t do anything for more days. I had crawled in my closet to finish reading it and was just bawling

A lot of people were affected by the dogs dying in Where the Red Fern Grows but I maintain the superior children's book about punching you through the heart with hunting dog relationships is Sounder, and when the father and the dog both go, man, it breaks me.

After Old Yeller, it was Black Beauty, and after that, it was Where the Red Fern Grows, AND THIS IS WHY I WILL NEVER WATCH OR READ MEDIA ABOUT ANIMALS.

Where the Red Fern Grows probably traumatized me for life, and that was after losing a family dog to an untimely fate myself. 😭

old dan and little ann in where the red fern grows. its been decades and i have still never recovered

Oh god, Where the Red Fern Grows. I feel weepy THINKING about it and that was in 1982. That book effectively killed any interest I had in reading animal books. Big Dan and Little Ann were ENOUGH, thank you so much. (That said, I LOVE it when people read my stories and sob their hearts out, so...)

Where the Red Fern Grows devastated me as a child