As a child I loved to read; now I find that frustrating because I seem to never have time for anymore “free reading.” An absolute favorite book has always been “Love You Forever” by Robert N Munsch. The book tells of a young mother singing to her child every night after she made sure he was asleep. As “he grew and he grew” her words remained "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be.” Even after he moved out into an apartment she would sometimes visit and sing to him. At the end of the book it shows the once young child as a grown man picking up his elderly mother and singing to her but replacing the last line with “my mommy you’ll be”; he then returned home to his house and sang the original version to his new baby.
My mom has read this book to me countless times and created her own melody of the song the mother sings to her child. After my parents divorced when I was five I had a hard time coping but this was a book that as a child really showed me my mom’s unconditional love! It has always been something special the two of us have shared. (My three-year-old niece is also now an avid fan!)
While looking for a link for this book I learned of Munsch’s motivation to write it. He told of how his wife had two stillbirths and he continuously had this song in his head until he finally wrote the lyrics down and developed another story out of it.
While it can be viewed as an emotional book I think it may still be used sufficiently in the classroom. It repeats the song continuously throughout the book so it could be a great way to introduce repetition in poetry to the class. Young children frequently write stories about their family, pets and other sorts so after reading this book you could have them write a short story or poem about someone or something they are close to while using their own repetitious chorus as Munsch does in “Love You Forever”.
To purchase visit:
http://www.amazon.com/Love-You-Forever-Robert-Munsch/dp/0920668364
No comments:
Post a Comment