Why Do We Cry?

This sensitive, poetic picture book uses metaphors and beautiful imagery to explain the reasons for our tears, making it clear that everyone is allowed to cry, and that everyone does.

In a soft voice, Mario asks, “Mother, why do we cry?” His mother thinks for a moment, and then begins to tell him about the many reasons for our tears. We cry because our sadness is so huge it must escape from our bodies. Because we don’t understand the world, and our tears go in search of an answer. Because we can’t find the right words, and our tears speak a universal language. Most important, she tells him, we cry because we feel like crying. And, as she shows him then, sometimes we feel like crying for joy.

By exploring the causes of our tears, Fran Pintadera’s thoughtful, poetic picture book story defends the right to cry and reinforces crying’s importance as a way to release our pain, to calm us and to help us grow. Though the question is asked by the boy, the illustrations of his mother’s answers feature her as a child, adding a layer of empathy to her message. Ana Sender’s artwork uses color and symbolic images along with facial expressions and body language to beautifully capture the mood and emotion being described on each spread. This warm, reassuring hug of a book provides just the response every adult would want to have to the central question. Supporting social-emotional learning, it makes an excellent choice for discussions about feelings and crying. To extend the concepts in the story, back matter describes the physical aspects and benefits of tears and provides two activities.

Fran Pintadera is a storyteller, theater director and an award-winning author of more than a dozen books for children. He lives in Spain.