Love You Forever

Rating:
Summary: A Lesson So Simple, Adults Should Learn It
Review: A friend of mine gave this book to me while I was my mother's caregiver shortly before she passed away. It became, in a sense, my biography. I was a six-year-old boy tucking his mommy into bed.

A delightful read for anyone, not just the recommended 4 to 8 age group, this book has many layers to it that will appeal to all age groups. Although one reviewer here wrote that the book promotes codependency, I disagree. It merely illustrates the connection between mother and son. Certainly the boy tries his mother's patience, as all children surely do, but she loves him despite his impertinence, and the book's simple statement is that a mother's love for her child never stops. That the boy, now grown, returns to his mother on her deathbed, holds her and sings to her the song she sang to him as a youth is a tribute to her parenting. What greater comfort than for a mother to hear "love you forever".

Heraclitus wrote, "All things flow, nothing abides." But life is a circle, and I now bear she who once bore me. So long as I live, so will my mother. This book remains on my bookshelf, and I pull it out every so often to read it, and it still brings tears to my eyes.

Rating:
Summary: A 15 year old girl's perspective.
Review: I adore this book! My mom read it to me all the time when I was little. This is a wholesome book that sends a message of love, not death to a child. I'm sure there are a handful of children who focus on the ending, but not many. And the adults who focus on the ending are obviously unable to handle the concept of death. This book doesn't send a message of incest or inappropriate interaction between a mother and child. It tells the story of a loving relationship between a mother and son that lasts beyond the realm of childhood. In fact, when I have children of my own, I will buy my own copy (perhaps sooner) and read it to them.

Rating:
Summary: Still makes me cry...
Review: I love this book. I first read many years ago, when my much younger (12 years) brother was a child. He loved it, and I loved to read it to him. Now I read it to my 3 year old niece. I cried when I first read it, and I cry now.

This book is about the unconditional love between parents (and even grandparents or other family members depending how closely knit you are) and children. It speaks to the notion of knowing that the bond between a parent and a child is something that is hard to break.

The beauty of this book is that it isn't corny or fake. Everything about the story has a ring of truth to it, even the whimsical bits like the mother going to the son's house and sneaking in. It was sweet and it gave me a chuckle, and it was a poignant metaphor for the notion that no matter how far away we are from our families, we carry them with us everywhere.

I know that as I get older, and watch my parents aging, and see them dealing with the aging of their own parents, I can begin to understand in a new way the ending of the book, where the son sings the song to his mother.

The illustrations are exquisite - I love all the details that are included, like, as another reviewer mentioned, the way the cat ages.

I think any parent would do well to own this book. I know that it is now my favorite baby shower gift.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book about life and a parents love for their child
Review: I see many differing opinions written here about this book. I think the book is wonderful. The book is about the cycle of life. It describes a Mother's unconditional love for her Son through the years. No matter what he does and how frustrated she is with him, that love never goes away and is eventually passed on from Parent to Child to Parent through the generations. It really gets to the bottom of a parents feelings for their children. I have read the reviews that have given this book low marks. Some people have even went so far as to call this book creepy. While I agree if a Mother in the "real world" drove across town and crept into her Son's room to rock him, it would be disturbing. In this book though, it shows that the Mother continues to love her Son through his whole life even even though there are boundaries separating them. I view this in the same spirit as I do Cinderella. A Step-Daughter that is used like a slave until a fairy god-mother comes and rescues her so she can fall in love with a Prince after one dance. One of Cinderella's messages among many others is just because people treat you bad, what matters is the person you are on the inside and that there is always hope. (unfortunately there are not fairy god-mothers because there sure are a lot of people that could use one.)

Rating:
Summary: This book should become a childhood classic.
Review: I still get misty-eyed when reading this book and I've read it more times than I can count. This book is a treasure. I do not understand the negative comments about the book. Even my three-year-old son understands the metaphorical essence of the story. We laugh at the picture of the tiny mother holding her grown son, but the message of enduring and unconditional love is powerfully portrayed. My son likes it so much that as part of his bedtime routine each night, I sing the book's verse. If that makes me sick, perverse, weird, or bizzare, so be it! (No, I don't plan to crawl into his own house and rock him when he's grown!)

Rating:
Summary: Spiritual Soul Food
Review: This book was placed in my hands by a tear-stained-face mother who expressed that she heard excerpts of the book at a recent funeral. She conveyed that she witnessed a child reading excerpts of the book at the funeral of his own mother stating that was his way of honoring his mother. After reading the book myself in addition to being a mother of two sons, I couldn't help having my maternal feelings penetrated by such lovely and reality-based feelings. I couldn't help thinking of my two young sons and/or children whom I am blessed to be around and read it to them! It's obvious the author is a gifted and talented storyteller. This book was obviously written with love. How wonderful that this book can stand alone on its text. This book is heart-felt, a life-changer, and has been written with clean motives. It's spiritual soul food to the essence. It's unfortunate that those who have written poor reviews of this book seem to focus their warped perceptions on the illustrations of the book or took in the words of the text the wrong way. I guess that's what happens when you don't have loving parents teach you true and unconditional love from day one. I can only thank my lucky stars that this book was brought to light in my own life so that I can pass it down to my own children because I do love my children forever even though I don't always like what they do! Happy Reading for those open-minded and blessed with a child's heart!

Rating:
Summary: The very best story a parent can read to their child
Review: This story has been sort of a family tradition for us. It was shown to me by my grandmother just before she died and the message was so touching that I went out and bought it for my daughter; only it remains with all my personal keepsakes! I defy any parent to read this story to their child and not come away from it with a tear in their eye and squeezing their child just a little bit tighter. It is the amazing yet true story of how a child can drive a parent crazy with their behavior but the parent can still love them with all their hearts, no matter how old they get. It also shows how that love is shared in the feelings of the child. It reminds me of what my mother always said to us "I may not like the things you do, but I will always love you". Someday I will pass this book on to my daughter; maybe when she has children of her own, but for now I'm buying it for a young friend of mine who with her new baby boy is just beginning to know a love so strong as one has never known before they look at the face of their "very new baby... and rock them back and forth... and sing 'I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be.' "