Love You Forever
Love
You Forever is a Canadian picture book written
by Robert Munsch
and published in 1986. It tells the story of the evolving relationship between
a boy and his mother.
The
book was written after Munsch and his wife had two stillborn babies.[1] They have since become adoptive parents of three.
Story
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
exasperating behaviour exhibited by him throughout his youth. In spite of her
occasional aggravation caused by her son's behaviour, the mother nonetheless
visits his bedroom nightly to cradle him in her arms, and sing a brief lullaby
promising to always love him. After her son enters adulthood and leaves home,
his elderly mother occasionally sneaks into his bedroom at night to croon her
customary lullaby. However she gradually grows old and frail, and her grown son
visits his feeble, sickly mother for the final time. When he first arrives, his
mother tries to sing her lullaby to him, but she is too weak to finish. He then
cradles her in his arms and sings an altered rendition of her lullaby in
reciprocation of the unconditional love that she had shown him throughout his
life, vowing to always love her. After returning home in a scene implying the
death of his mother, he cradles his newborn daughter and sings his mother's
signature lullaby for her, implying that the cycle will continue.
Reception
It
was listed fourth on the 2001 Publishers
Weekly All-Time Bestselling Children's
Books list for paperbacks at 6,970,000 copies (not including the 1,049,000
hardcover copies).[2] In 2001, Maria
Shriver wrote in O, The Oprah Magazine: "I have yet to read this book through without crying.
It says so much about the circle of life, youth, parenting, and our
responsibility for our parents as we grow older. The message is so simple yet
so profound. Love You Forever is a great gift for anyone with a child,
or even for your own parents."[3] Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education
Association named the book one of its
"Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children."[4]
Some
readers dislike the portion of the story where the mother sneaks into her grown
son's home. One Publishers Weekly reviewer states that Love You Forever is a divisive
children's book. "Either it moves you to tears and you love it, or it
makes your skin crawl and you detest it..." [5] A commentator wrote "it's either a touching account of
a mother's unending love or the ultimate helicopter parenting gone bad." [6]
Adaptations
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, moving everyone to tears. Inspired by this, Joey later decides to
recite the book as a dramatic monologue at an audition.
The
book was read by Madeleine Stowe to Tori Barban in the movie The Christmas Hope, the third movie in The Christmas Shoes trilogy.
References
· · Shriver, Maria
(December 2001). "Love
You Forever - Review".
O: The Oprah Magazine. Retrieved 2008-09-04.[dead link]
· · National
Education Association (2007). "Teachers' Top
100 Books for Children".
Retrieved August 22, 2012.
· · Morris, Alison, Love
You Forever, Hate You Forever, Publishers Weekly, May 6, 2008
·
Prahl, Amanda (Dec 29, 2019). "The Emotional True Story Behind "Love You
Forever" Adds a New Layer to the Sweet Book". POPSUGAR Family. Retrieved Feb 8,
2020.
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