Sometimes I Cry

PreS-Gr 4–Childhood is full of emotional ups and downs, and in this beautifully illustrated story, readers follow a boy through a series of life events and the emotions they raise. These universal experiences and the tearful reactions they produce will resonate with readers of all ages. While crying is a natural human response, it is a challenging experience, especially for boys, due to cultural taboos in some communities. This title shows a young boy and his father wrestling and laughing so hard that tears come out. The young boy also cries with his grandfather as they remember Grandma. The illustrations, starting with the cover showing eight different tearful expressions of the boy, capture the range of emotions that can produce tears and offer readers an emotional vocabulary through which they can express their own tearful episodes. In one, it is the love he feels for his baby sister that makes him well up. In another instance, the narration explains that with the release of tears, his emotions can fit in him again.