Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

Title: Love You Forever

Author: Robert MunschIllustrator: Sheila McGraw

Copyright: 1986, Firefly Books Ltd., Canada.
Grade Level: Preschool - younger elementary
Genre: Fiction

Theme: Love, Family, Devotion, Heritage

Summary: This book is about a mother who rocks her baby and sings to him about how she'll love him forever and how he'll always be her baby. When the boy starts getting older, and starts causing trouble and not obeying his mothers rules, she says that she sometiems wants to put him in a zoo, and sometiems she feels like she is in a zoo. When the boy grew up into a man, he moved away and even then the mother snuck into his house and rocked him to sleep, singign the same old song. One day, she called him to visit her because she is old and sick and when he went to her house she couldn't finish the whole song because she was very ill. Her son then rocked her to sleep singing her song, and then he went into the room where his newborn was sleeping and he sang her the same song. It was passed on down by his mother.

Pre-Reading Activity:

Teach the song in the story to the children before reading the story, so that when you read the story they can sing along.

Post-Reading Activity:

Have the children draw a picture to their mother or father, showing them their love for them. Also, if children are in elementary they can write a letter to their parents saying why they love them or write a song for them.

Reflection:

This is such a touching story, that can be used with younger children. It's adorable to read about this son's devotion to his mother, and his devotion to his own child in the end. It's sweet to see how the song his mother sang was passed down from generations. This is such a heart-warming story, that shows the mother singing a song to her newborn son, simply out of love. We see throughout the story that her son becomes older, and sometimes doesn't act the way he should but she still reminds him of her love for him. I think it's such a powerful message, and that when reading this we are spreading the message of family love to the readers. It's a very sweet book with beautiful illustrations, and it can be read to almost anyone to pass a message of everlasting love.

About the Author:

Robert Munsch is the bestselling author and illustrator of Russell and the Lost Treasure and many more books. He lives in Rutland, England, with his wife Liz. His wife Liz is also an artist. He was born on June 11, 1945 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up in a family of nine kids. He almost flunked every grade in elementary but somehow he survived al those years and the teachers kept passing him. He thought it was because his younger brother was a grade below him, and nobody wanted to see him in the same grade as him, so they just kept passing him to the next grade. He never learned how to spell, and he graduated from eight grade counting on his fingers, so academics were really not his thing. Although he stunk at school, he did enjoy poetry and wrote quite a lot of it. He studied to be a Catholic Priest for seven years, and then realized he was lousy priest material. He received an undergraduate degree in History and a Master's degree in Anthropology. The only reason he received this degree he believes is because he flunked his orals for his Ph. D. He worked at an orphanage, and enjoyed working with kids. He decided soon after that he'd like to work in a daycare. He realized he was good with hids and that his stories got the kids to fall asleep. He started making up stories at the daycare where he worked, and when he met his wife she told him to publish his stories. That's how he became a writer.





About the author