Robert Munsch started Love you Forever as a song: “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be” after he and his wife had two stillborn babies (Munsch, “The Books: Love You Forever”). However, the story surrounding the song was not developed until sometime later. Understanding where Munsch is coming from while writing Love You Forever really emphasizes the meaning of unconditional love that is so prevalent within the story, as well as, highlights the underling theme of gender stereotypes. The love that a parent has for their child is an unrestricted love that never wavers. Informed Attribute: The son is described as "great big" as a teenager and a grown man, but he seems to be about average size. It's implied that he's described this way because it's the way the mother sees him, compared to the tiny baby he used to be. For a long time it was just a song but one day, while telling stories at a big theatre at the University of Guelph, it occurred to me that I might be able to make a story around the song. The book was written after Munsch and his wife had two stillborn babies. [1] They have since adopted three children. [2] Reception [ edit ] But at least now I know I can threaten to strap a ladder to the top of my car and pay them a midnight visit if they don't routinely call me.

Moment of Silence: When the son arrives home after his mother dies (or possibly when she's very close to death), he stands at the top of the stairway in silence for a long time. This is one reason readers interpret that the mother passed away. Because of their experience of losing children, and the beauty of being able to adopt and love two, they always wanted them to know how much they were loved… Ok, in response to the haters: let me state that I do not mind one bit that many people have been touched and uplifted and LOVE this book. It just doesn't work for me. At all. And I'm allowed to have a different opinion that you.*** It starts out ok . . . but about the time the kid gets to be a teenager I just start to feel uncomfortable. Would I be ok with my mom slipping into my teenage brothers' rooms while they're sleeping to cuddle and sing a love song? No, probably not.

When the son first arrives, his mother tries to sing her lullaby to him, but she is too weak to finish. The son then cradles his mother in his arms and sings the lullaby for her in reciprocation for the unconditional love that she had shown him throughout his life, changing the last line to "my mommy you'll be." The book was read by Madeleine Stowe to Tori Barban in the movie The Christmas Hope, the third movie in The Christmas Shoes trilogy. One day the publisher called up and said “This is very strange. It is selling very well in retirement communities in Arizona. It is selling in retirement communities where kids are illegal. This is supposed to be a children’s book. What is going on?” Love You Forever is the story of a mother and her son throughout the course of the boy's life; describing his exasperating behavior throughout his youth.

While the mother does want to sell him to the zoo when he gets on her nerves at age nine, she loves her son all his life and makes it very clear to him. When he has a daughter, though we don't see much of her, he seems to be a loving father, singing her to sleep. Never Say "Die": It's pretty obvious that the mother is dying at the end, but the narration never says it directly.In fact, it turned out that parents buy it for grandparents and grandparents buy it for parents and kids buy it for everybody and everybody buys it for kids.

The book is prominently featured in the Friends episode " The One with the Cake". In the episode, Joey performs a dramatic reading of the book at Emma's first birthday (as he had forgotten to get a present and saw the book nearby), moving everyone to tears. Joey later realizes that he has forgotten to prepare for an upcoming audition and decides to recite the book as a dramatic monologue. Babies Ever After: The book ends with the boy (now an adult) singing the song to his infant daughter.

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Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Downplayed. The book ends with the man's daughter already born but still a "very new" baby, and the mother probably not dead yet, but dying. Alright, now in this book's defense (and all the people who love it!), it's almost certainly not meant to be taken literally. It's meant to show how long a parent's love lasts. No matter what they do, no matter how old they get, your children will always be your babies. And, I admit, it's hard to watch mine grow up and not need me as much anymore. Of course, if you look at the visual illustrations you see the mother crawling to his bed every night to hold him and sing this refrain no matter how old he is. Toddlerhood to adulthood. I made that up after my wife and I had two babies born dead. The song was my song to my dead babies. For a long time I had it in my head and I couldn’t even sing it because every time I tried to sing it I cried. It was very strange having a song in my head that I couldn’t sing.

I Was Quite a Fashion Victim: As a teen, the man wore "strange clothes". The outfit we see him wearing is a large shirt with sunflowers on it, jeans, and ladies' shoes. Only, you have to imagine that she sounds like a Valley Girl with a southern accent. Because she does, and it makes everything she says 10x more hilarious.I get the point - unconditional and everlasting love, hence the three stars. But that's just not how you do it man. I like what the book is saying, I just don't like how it's saying it. Maybe, just maybe, I would've appreciated this story more as a kid, when I saw the world through innocent and unspotted eyes, but now I know such words like STALKER, PEEPING TOM, OBSESSIVE CREEP, LOONEY. Nooooooo. I just can't overlook how disturbing this is. I really couldn't enjoy this book. How do I fall asleep now? I just wanted something sweet **sniffs** This is definitely better than Edward Cullen's night watch sessions. Now, that's not to say I'm not affectionate. I hug him. Lots! <--mostly against his will b/c he's a teenager. And, now that I’m on this roll, I wonder what kind of message it is sending to young mothers. This woman apparently has no other identity apart from being a mom. She appears to be a single mom, because the dad is never mentioned. The only other authority figure that we hear about is the grandma. But there’s almost no substance to the mom. The story details the cycle of life by chronicling the experiences of a young son and his mother throughout the course of the boy's life and describing the frustrating behavior exhibited by him throughout his youth.