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. This mom I seriously think has issues with letting her children go. Once a man gets married the woman in their life isn't you--it's the wife! And when children grow up and become adults and you should have an adult-to-adult relationship with them. Quit trying to cuddle them!

There is one part that is a bit disturbing with the mom even sneaking into the "boy's" home when he is an adult to continue so sooth him in his sleep. While the literal sense of this is....unusual to say the least, the concept the book holds is very true. For me to this day, my mother still calls me her "Munchkin" and has admitted that even having kids of my own I will still be her little girl. No matter what I do or go through she loves me. And that is the message I love about this book. Love You Forever Book Analysis By: Matthew Strong Love You Forever is a classic heart-warming story by Robert Munsch built around a simple, but eternally meaningful commitment from a mother to a child to love him forever. Robert Munsch has become a world-renowned author of children’s books for his unique use of exaggerated expressions that produce sounds that are very appealing and fun for children. In Love You Forever Munsch uses words like “crazy” and “zoo” to add the effect of comedy but the overall theme of the story strikes chords that are much deeper than exaggerated expressions (Munsch np). Parental Love Song: The "I'll Love you Forever" song is about how the woman will love her son no matter what. The son's verse is about how he'll always love her no matter what. Original questions and guidelines for philosophical discussion archived here. Edited June 2020 by The Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics.

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. It is the most loved and the most hated book I’ve ever seen. More loved than not, people will read this book and burst into tears.”

A mother repeats this phrase to her son at night, continuing this as he grows up. Parents of even older children can relate. No matter how old they get, they are still yours and you love them. 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?” 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. Madam…why are you crawling? This is your house. You can stand in the doorway. Standing there would be slightly less creepy than crawling. Where It Fully TurnsChildren’s author Robert Munsch published the popular picture book Love You Forever in 1986 as a way of grieving his two stillborn children. Overcome by this loss, Munsch wrote the book as an allegory of the unconditional and lifelong love that parents have for their children. Love You Forever chronicles the life of a boy as he becomes a man, as well as the life of his loving mother as she ages and eventually dies. The book has had two illustrators, Anthony Lewis and Sheila McGraw. Despite her occasional aggravation caused by her son's behavior at 2 years old, 9 years old, and as a teenager, the mother nonetheless visits his bedroom nightly to cradle him in her arms, and sing a brief lullaby promising to always love him:

As a matter of fact, everybody buys it for everybody. That’s why it sells a lot of copies. I think it’s my best book. So far it has sold about 15,000,000 copies. 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 didn't hate this book because it was too sappy. I like sappy sometimes. Here's what I didn't like about the book. 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.Oh, yes. Because, evidently, some woman was chill with this freaky old broad randomly sneaking into her home and cuddling with her husband. 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. Empty Nest: Even after the boy grows up and moves out, his mother will sometimes sneak into his house to hold him and sing the song. 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.