You can read it here, but there are no illustrations:
http://www.rogerknapp.com/inspire/loveforever.htm
This is a children's book, about a mother who rocks her child to sleep, singing,
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
It's fine in the beginning - what any normal mother will do. Then it gets a little strange. The little tyke does all kinds of shitty things, and then the mother will invariably become pissed. But at night, she'll always crawl across the floor and rock him to sleep.
On and on. Even when he's an adult and has moved out.
Then she falls ill, calls him to visit, and he does. She sing him the song, but doesn't manage to finish because she's too ill. At which point the boy picks her up and rocks her and sing a different version of the song, where the last two lines are substituted by,
As long as I'm living
my Mommy you'll be.
He goes home, picks up his daughter, repeats what his mother used to do to him.
Let me stress that she rocks him to sleep every night.
Every.
Night.
A lot of people find it sweet and heartwarming. They say that it's not meant to be taken literally, that what it actually means is that mothers will always love their children.
I'm sorry, but I don't think children aged one and up (
http://www.amazon.com/Love-You-Forever-Robert-Munsch/dp/0920668372) understand how to take things metaphorically.
Now, time for my theory.
Instead of a mother's
love, this is a story about a mother's
abuse.
No, see, it all makes sense. Shush, let me explain.
When the boy was young, his mother abused him. It might have been his father or uncle or whoever, but it's not important. Someone in his family abused him - any kind of abuse works, but let's just say it's physical. They beat him.
And he grows up, lashes out, as a result of that abuse, and oh look, they're still abusing him. I'm going to substitute the rocking for beating, and the song for abuse - like, she beat him everyday, instead of she rocked him to sleep everyday.
He grows. He becomes a rebellious teenager. Of course it's because she abused him! Why else - and she keeps on abusing him.
I'm starting to like my version more and more.
He moves out. But his mother follows him - in the original story, she still rocks him to sleep every night, even though he's rather far away now and it theoretically isn't plausible for her to still rock him to sleep every night. In my version, he still has nightmares about the abuse and that experience never truly leaves him.
Get it? The parallels?
She falls ill. Calls him for a visit. Still the same abusive mother, so the guy is like, fuck all, I'm pissed, you abused me and I'm pissed. So what? Remember that scene where he sing her song back to her? In my version he's taking some slightly violent revenge.
Oh, oh, and remember how abuse victims often become abusers themselves? Yes?
See it now? He repeats it all to his daughter.
Hah.
(Also, the main reason why I'm completely freaked out and creeped out by this story - the crawling part. remember the crawling part - is
this. The illustration.)
I will never let a child read this.
... Excuse me, I need to go and lock my door and windows, and then maybe huddle in a corner and cry a little because that book is terrifying and disturbing and oh god she's crawling - )
/EDIT:/ I find this link funny, especially this comment:
Jane Yolen
I am a hugger, too. I am sentimental. I am gooey over my first grandchild. I adore my grown children. BUT
I find LOVE YOU FOREVER to be about an incredibly dysfunctional family, with a mother who infantilizes her child, invades his private space, never can say "I love you" when he is awake, and even when he is grown manages his life. I am convinced she drugs his cocoa, otherwise why does he sleep so soundly when she crawls (!) into his room and picks him up every single night.
And when the teenage daughter awakes one night and finds her father holding her in his lap, she is going to call 911.
Nope--this one is a very dangerous book. IMHO. And not at all amusing.
http://www.fairrosa.info/disc/loveyouforever.html
