Absolutely! I teach second grade, and assuming I continue to do so, next year will be my last in which I have kids who were born before 9/11. For the past two years I read The Man Who Walked Between the Towers to my kids on 9/11 (maybe the nearest schoolday in 2007, I forget), and I definitely get choked up at the end. I talk to the kids just a little about 9/11 when we’re done; one of them brings it up, and I try to give them some age-appropriate context. Wonderful, astonishing book.
Another in the genre: Coming on Home Soon. It’s about a girl whose mom goes off to work in another city to make money while she stays home with her grandma and misses her mom. That’s sad, sure–but it’s the cute little goddam kitten who wanders into the book who makes me cry. A kitten, ferchrissakes! That’s just low.
I was waiting for this and was going to chime in if someone else didn’t. SEVERAL points in The High King reduce me to tears EVERY TIME. There are points in the other books as well, but that one in particular…