Love You Forever is one of the most brilliant works by Robert Norman Munsch, a Canadian kid’s writer and storyteller. Although, this book is a part of children’s literature genre, it may be also interesting to lots of adults, both fathers and mothers. Children buy this book for their parents, and parents want to present it to grandparents.
In general, everybody would like to buy this book for children, and children want to buy Love You Forever for everybody. It is classis and kind story about a mother and her child. The child grows day by day, and the mother is not tired to remind how much she loves him. Time passes, the child has grown up. Now, his mother is sick and cannot sing for him. It is his time to sing this simple but unbelievably pleasant song to his mother.
The creation of this story touches many readers. In 1979 and 1980, the author had two stillborn babies. It was a real tragedy as for Munsch as well as for his wife. Robert created a wonderful song for his dead children, and could not sing it for them. Each time he start singing, he could not but cry.
During a certain period of time, this song was just a song of a grievous father. But one day, Munsch decided to create a kind of story around this song. It was the beginning of Love You Forever: “I’ll love you forever/ I’ll like you for always/ As long as I’m living/ My baby you’ll be. (Love You Forever 1)
The language, structure, and style of this book are not too complicated. The illustrations created by Sheila McGraw make this story understandable for children. However, to my mind, only parents can understand the real meaning of the words in this story. Children are certainly the greatest blessing any parent can ever get. Even if children can make their parents going crazy, parents will understand everything and provide with the necessary support any time.
The author chooses an interesting way to present the events in the story. “The boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew… Well, that mother, she got older. She got older and older and older.” (Love You Forever) It is a simple truth that parents cannot be young all the time. Children have nothing to do but observe how their parents grow older and cannot spend all the time together.
When the main character of the story, the son, comes to his mother and sees that his mother is sick and cannot continue singing the song, he supports her and finishes the song. What can make the mother happier? Maybe, it is the next gesture of the son. When he comes back his own home, he sings the same song to his newborn daughter. To my mind, it is the climax of the story that makes the readers cry a bit.
Lots of children do not want to appreciate a chance and spend more time with their parents. The author of this book, Robert Munsch, does not have a chance to share his love and care with his own children. This is why he shares all this with his readers.
It does not matter whether you are a teenager or a 40-year old man, after you read this amazing story, you cannot but pick up the phone and say to your parents how much you love them. This is what Love You Forever tells us about, and this is what we should do every day – be grateful to our parents for their love and care.
Works Cited
Munsch, Robert N. and McGraw Sheila. Love Your Forever. Firefly Books, 2003.