Most of us have Robert Munsch's Love You Forever on a shelf somewhere at home. Not surprisingly, with a lovely, sweet song throughout, it has become one of the best-selling kids’ books of all time.
However, while it is a perfectly lovely book for youngsters - that reiterates a mother's unending love for her child - many readers feel it gets a little creepy as the story goes on.
For those of you who don't know, the story begins with a mother rocking her newborn baby to sleep, all the while singing:
"I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
as long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.”
Each page the child grows up but the mother continues to sing... even after the boy moves away and becomes a father himself. Yes, even then the loving mum makes the effort to sing him the song - often climbing through a bedroom window to get to him.
However, the reason Robert wrote the book will actually make you look at the story in a whole new light - because the song was written after he and his wife lost two babies.
In fact, for a long time the author admits that he couldn't even sing the song because it made him cry.
And it wasn't until he was telling stories at a university that he felt he could turn it into a picture book.
"For a long time it was just a song but one day, while telling stories at a big theatre at the University of Guelph, it occurred to me that I might be able to make a story around the song.
"Out popped Love You Forever, pretty much the way it is in the book."
We have been reading this book for a very long time - but now we'll definitely be reading it with a lot more love.
