love you forever by robert munsch summary

It ends with the son holding his frail mother and singing the same words to her. The book begins with the mother rocking her son to sleep and singing those words to him. The story - which uses the line, 'I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be' - actually began as a song. Munsch, who is American-born but lives in Guelph, Ont., wrote the book as a memorial for two stillborn babies that he and his wife had in 19. McGraw's son Graham, who was about 8 when the illustrations were done, was used as the model for the mischievous imp caught unrolling toilet paper and dropping his mom's watch in the loo, ransacking the living room as a teenager, and eventually growing into a handsome man who moves out of his mother's two-storey home. So it's true, as long as I'm living, my baby he'll be.' 'The moment I laid eyes on 31 years of separation just vanished. 'We are two of the lucky ones,' she says. Today, McGraw says proudly that her first-born is 38 years old and a gifted painter. She invited him to dinner, and the two have stayed in touch regularly. She says she assumed he was dead.īut in 1998, her preemie baby, who had been adopted by a loving family who and named him James Huctwith, contacted McGraw through an adoption agency. He was born three months premature, and weighed 21/2 pounds. But McGraw was thinking, too, of another baby boy she had given up when she was 17. At the time, she had two sons, Ben and Graham. Like almost everyone else who reads Love You Forever, McGraw remembers getting choked up the first time she read Munsch's text, sent to her by Firefly Books.

He's a person with an actual appreciation for children's art, which is quite rare. 'It turns out the owner is involved in setting up the Winnie the Pooh museum in Winnipeg. So she approached a neighbourhood gallery to see if they'd be interested in assisting with a sale.

Their near loss made her rethink keeping the pictures locked away, sight unseen. She moved recently and forgot them in her former residence. There is a popularity attached to it that says it deserves this kind of attention.'įor the past 20 years, McGraw kept the drawings (a mix of pastel, crayon, pencil crayon and marker on paper) in a box in her attic. 'Not because I think they're Guggenheim quality or anything, but because, as children's books go, it's an icon. 'It would be great if the Hospital for Sick Children or a museum got them,' says the 56-year-old artist, who adds that the asking price is roughly $300,000. McGraw says she hopes the 15 drawings (including a work that was only published in the first printing of the book) will be sold to one owner.

Love you forever by robert munsch summary