“I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, As long as I’m living, My baby you’ll be.” Since Love You Forever was first published in 1986, millions of parents have lulled their children to sleep with these affectionate words. This picture book will widen the influence of this soothing message.
The story begins while a son has just been born. The story then continues through the life of the boy until he is a grown man. The mother continues to rock her son to sleep singing “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.” Later, the role is reversed and he holds his elderly mother and says “I’ll love you forever I’ll like you for always as long as I’m living my Mommy you’ll be.” At the very end of the story, he is the father of a little girl, rocking her to sleep singing the same song that his mother used to sing to him.
Book
Love You Forever
Did you and your child read this book? Share your children's reactions below.
This is a fantastic picture book that is a metaphor for the overwhelming love one feels for their child (no matter what age). For all of those readers who can only read in co-dependent, Oedipal, or Freudian themes into this book, you have missed the entire point and have hearts of stone! The fact is that the author Robert Munsch wrote this book as a tribute to his TWO still-born children and that makes this story even more moving especially if you’ve lost a child or had a miscarriage. The story is an expression of imagining his kids and what they would have been like and how much he would have loved them their whole lives. I found this to be a very emotional and touching story (and I am not a sentimental woman at all). My 3-year-old, rough and tumble, only-loves-the-outside-and-trucks kind of boy really likes this story and has been requesting it for bedtime almost every night. He especially enjoys the verse that is the theme of the book, “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as you’re living, my baby you’ll be.” My son wants to hear us say that to him. And again to all those who wrote and thought that this book was “sick”; face it, you might not have liked how this book was portrayed, but you’ll love your kids forever, no matter how old they’ll get, and in spite of what they will do throughout the phases of their lives that might frustrate you. In fact, my husband likes this story so much that he plans to get it for his mother for Mother’s Day. This is a must-have children’s book!
My kids, all now teenagers, loved this book. They still remember the mom rocking back & forth and the words she would say. Recently my middle child had said her friends at school were talking about this book, as they lovedit and remembered it too. I buy this book for friends and family to read to there little ones. This is one of the best childrens books.
My mother read this book to me all the time when I was a child and I loved it so much! I tell my fiance constantly how much I love it. We have decided that the day we have children they too will grow up with the book.
This little classic is readily and easily digested by one who has known the true love of a mother. My mother gave me this book during the first Christmas with my new baby daughter in 1992. I had no idea that within the year, my father would be gone, and I would begin to give tender care to my precious little mother who would begin “getting very sick” much like the mother in the book. I cried a bucket of tears as I read it aloud with my wife, mother and father for the very first time. When my mom passed on, it was a tender and precious time at her bedside, and very reminiscent of this tender little book.
Today, my two girls go for it regularly on my shelf at bedtime. They tease me because I can’t get through it without crying. Funny to me that they have a very good grasp of allegory and they, unlike some of the book’s critics, understand that the scenes with the mother coming to the man’s apartment are actually his memories of her love. They understand, as I explain to them that the love poured into the son by his mother, has taught him how to love his new baby daughter at the end.
Love begets love, and this little childrens’ parable is a powerful reminder! I highly recommend _Love You Forever_ to anyone who enjoyed a wonderful love with their mother. To others, I’m sorry but you simply won’t (and obviously don’t) understand. It’s not written for you.
I am a teenager and i am 15 years old. I strongly remember my mom reading this story to me as a child. I wanted her to read it to me every night before I went to bed, this is a wonderful book for children and should always be remembered…
‘Love You Forever’ is perhaps the most touching book I have ever read. The story is warm, humorous and quite moving. The illustrations are beautiful and add to the depth of the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone. Be warned that it will bring tears to your eyes and a lump to your throat as you read it for the first time. At other times it will make you roll over laughing… The illustrations are delightful. Anyone will feel that this story is about them.
I remember my mother reading this book to me as a child. Now, I give this book to almost all my friends who have or are expecting children. The book follows a mother and her child through their lives and the bond they share. While I do not remember all the logistical components of the story, I still repeat the book tag line with my mother, “I’ll like you forever, I’ll love you for always, as long as you are living my mother you’ll be”. I Love you forever has a great message and is a perfect gift for mother’s to be and baby showers!
[...] I Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch [...]
my mother cries everytime i bring this book up (:
i read the book when i was teaching in pre school.since then i had always wished that someday i would be able to say the lines “i love you forever…” to my own child.and yes,almost every night my daughter asks me to sing it to her before going to sleep.this is one of my favorite children’s book.