Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Love You Forever

Top positive review

Queue the Ugly Cry

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 19, 2023

My aunt and uncle gifted us with this book when my first child was just a baby. I read it to him and his little brother many times over the years.

It's a sweet repetitive rhythmic story reminding a child of his mother's love enduring all things throughout the years. " I'll love you forever. I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."

Even without re-reading the entire book, the stanza is perfect for rocking and hugging and calming and soothing a child of any age but it does tug at a mama's heartstrings. It eventually became known as "that book that makes mommy cry."

Thirty-five years after I first read this book I ordered a new copy for my first granddaughter's nursery. I'll try to read it to her without the tears -- or maybe I'll just let her daddy read it to her instead. His eyes might leak a little bit too.

2 people found this helpful

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J.L.G.

New, but arrived with flaws :(

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 9, 2022

Still 1 of my favorite books and ordered as a baby shower gift for my 1st grandson so I was disappointed when the book arrived with obvious flaws. There is a gouge in the back cover (likely from box knife), a dent in the spine and the whole book is warped/bent so it doesn’t lay flat. I paid what I felt was a premium price for what I expected would be a premium product in new condition. If it wasn’t meant to be such a special gift, I probably wouldn’t be so picky, but my only options now are to give this copy or drive an hour to an actual bookstore to find 1 in better condition. I have no way of knowing if the damage happened prior to shipping or during transport in the bubble wrap envelope.

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From the United States

SNAP

Creepy - make sure to read the 1-star reviews - don't go by the high rating!!!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 24, 2013

Verified Purchase

I regret no reading the reviews with one star. In fact, I think I simply saw that 1,159 people had given this 5 stars and figured this book must be perfect for my kid. It's probably the first time that I was misguided by reviews, which I truly rely on!

I don't know who could like this book or even consider it appropriate for a child, or an adult for that matter. My husband and I read this together and kept laughing in that disturbed kind of way we all do when we come across something that's just creepy but not supposed to be. I don't know how else to describe it.

Brief summary:
About a mother and son (there's no father). First page has mother holding baby, rocking him, and singing a little song. After that page, the pages are devoted to the boy is growing up, at various very random ages. At each age mentioned, the boy does something naughty or misbehaves and the mother yells at the son. Then at night, AFTER he's asleep, she crawls into his room, holds him, rocks him, and sings him a little song. This happens at EVERY age. Read below for more details of the creepiness.

There is no doubt value in books for mothers and sons, especially single mothers with absentee fathers, but this really can't be it. Seriously? I haven't looked for such books, but please tell me that children in this family situation have healthier stories and children books, where the mother isn't creepy, infantilizing her son throughout his life.

Who this book may be for (to give a benefit of doubt)
--I really tried to think of something, but I can't think of a single scenario, except that it ends with the son singing for a frail old mother in the way she sang to him growing up.

Here's what you need to know why my husband and I feel this book is inappropriate and creepy for child and adult:
1) mother crawls into his room on all fours after boy is asleep. Why does she need to crawl? Fine, you want to reassure your child that no matter what he does, you still love him. But wouldn't it have been more comforting if he's awake and the mother goes in with confidence

2) when the child is an adult and living in his own home, she drives at night, and CRAWLS THROUGH HIS WINDOW. And there is an illustration of an older woman holding a fully-grown man

3) the son holds, rocks, and sings to his mother when she's frail and old, but how does he know what to reciprocate when his mother always waited for him to be asleep to do the same! I'm being sarcastic... before someone thinks of the subconscious awareness this child developed, etc.

4) why is there no mention of father or a presence even in the illustrations? Perhaps it's for single mothers? As I mention above, even for sons with single mom's and absentee fathers, it's hardly a positive story

5) the verses are odd

"I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be"

--Not soothing or comforting in the sound, nor appropriate at all ages
--Not sure if the if the mention of "as long as I'm living" is this supposed to inspire a discussion between parent and child about death, to help the child know that mother's eventually die
--Are we no longer our mother's child after she dies?
--And why "baby"? The mother infantilizes her son long after he's a baby, even as a grown man

The author has a right to write whatever story he envisions, but at least the mother could have portrayed as a confident woman, a mother who can walk into her son's room on two feet (rather than crawl on the floor) to reassure her child that no matter his mistakes in life, she'll always be there for him.

24 people found this helpful

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A nonymous

Creepy definitely regret getting this

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 25, 2022

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This book starts out OK and in general the storyline is a good intent to teach about growing up and loss . but when it talks about her creeping into her teenage then adult son’s room to stare at him and rocking him while he’s sleeping that’s super creepy. It also says he says bad words when his grandma comes over I don’t think that’s an OK thing to be reading to kids to teach them. I sure as heck as a nine-year-old did not say bad words in front of my mom and grandma nor would that have been OK . By all means I am not an uptight parent but this book is just a wtf no in so many ways . I have five kids and as I started to read the to my baby my 12 year old had the most WTH look on his face ever I don’t recommend this book

7 people found this helpful

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MySonsMother

Weird. It's just.....WEIRD.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 16, 2016

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The very first time I ever heard of this book was many years ago when I remember Joey Tribbiani reading this book aloud in an episode of Friends. I remember making a mental note to me to remember the book title and purchase it after my son was born. My son is now 4 and I finally got around to purchasing it.

I was VERY excited about this book. I was so happy to have a book to share with my son every night as he grew up. A story that he will always look back on and remember me. Maybe read it to his own child when he has one? It made my heart happy to think that.

One problem. This episode of Friends where Joey Tribbiani reads the story aloud to a group of people…it doesn’t include the middle part of the story. For obvious editing reasons, they only showed him reading the first page and the last page. It was then followed by a shot of the room full of adults bawling like children, full of emotion.

The only reason I’d want to cry after reading this story would be because I was laughing so hard. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the message the book is trying to convey. I just believe the way the author went about doing this was absolutely atrocious.

As I turned each page, I remember thinking to myself that there must be some big redeeming quality about this book that I just hadn’t read yet. So many great reviews on Amazon! Why wouldn’t there be? But each page got worse.

After finished reading it…I closed the book and I know the look on my face must have been priceless. I wondered, “What the h*ll did I just read?” I was so confused as to why a book like that would be so highly regarded. I was almost embarrassed after reading it. It was comical, inappropriate, and just weird. I have no other words to describe it.

I would highly recommend against purchasing this book, unless you know 100% for sure that someone would love this as a gift. It’s a very strange take on a very personal matter. I’ve never in my life ever thrown a book away, but today this book changes that.

26 people found this helpful

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Stuart Shapley

A horrible book on every level. . .

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 19, 2014

Verified Purchase

Of the many, many children's books we've bought or borrowed from the library for our daughter, this one is easily the worst for at least the following reasons:

1.) Creepy concept and awkward presentation of death and growing up - As other reviewers have noted, this book presents an odd model of the mother-son relationship. The child's father is absent from the story, and the mother apparently only expresses her love for her son while he's asleep. When he's awake, she's kvetching about the messes he's making and his weird friends and clothes. While adult readers will no doubt understand that this likely isn't the whole of the mother's feelings towards her son, this point may likely be lost on younger, more innocent readers. Similarly, this book makes a mess of introducing the ideas of "leaving the nest" (apparently, it never happens - mom just breaks in and enters every other night) and death (mom calls to say she's dying).

2.) Horrible, ham-fisted artwork - Illustrating childrens' books isn't rocket science, and as a parent, I've got no problem with children's books whose artwork makes "Ziggy" look like the work of a Dutch master, so long as the book engages the child and has some sort of merit. That said, the artwork in this book repulses both child and parent alike. The pool cue chalk blue illustrations do nothing to hold my daughter's attention, and I cringe at the artist's miserable command of light and perspective (e.g., houses missing parts of roofs, cats that look like weasels, and faces with blank, death mask like facial expressions.

3.) Abysmal writing. The author's command of the English language and punctuation is every bit as tenuous as the illustrator's grasp of the basics of drawing. In terms of word count, this book is roughly the same length as Dr. Seuss's "The Cat in the Hat." This is not a good thing. Whereas "The Cat In The Hat" makes artful use of repetition, rhythm and rhyme and is a joy to read aloud, "Love You Forever" thuds along like a monastic chant, inviting the reader to slap himself in the forehead with the book at the end of each page.

50 people found this helpful

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Sean M Malkus

Weird creepy book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 26, 2023

Verified Purchase

This must only have good reviews based solely on nostalgia because this book is straight up creepy parenting. The mother should just tell her son she loves him instead of creeping in his room while he's sleeping throughout his adolescent and adult life to cradle and sing to him. Weird. Does not deserve a place in our home library. Returned.

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Rubix_Cubed

I hate this creepy emotionally manipulative book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 20, 2015

Verified Purchase

This book is just weird and I hate reading it to my child. The Mom in this book is emotionally manipulative and doesn't respect her son's boundaries. She complains about her child's age/stage and then crawls (not walks, not enters quietly, CRAWLS!) into her sleeping son's bedroom at night to rock him while he sleeps. While it's sweet when he's an infant and a 2 year old, it's really weird when he's a teenager and a grown man. One of the illustrations actually shows Mom driving across town with a ladder on her car and breaking into her grown son's bedroom window. Of all the pics in the book, this one just makes me so mad- it's so inappropriate for a parent to violate their grown child's boundaries that way!!!

I'm also wary of reading everything in this book to my son and normally just paraphrase everything up to the song. The book lists some very specific bad behavior (flushing things down the toilet, pulling things off the shelves, saying bad words) that he hasn't started doing yet. I'm worried that the book will give him ideas and he'll start mimicking the naughty behavior we read about in this book. I also don't want him to think it's normal to behave the way the boy in the book does- he's really bad!

Mom is also emotionally manipulative "You better come see me, I'm old and sick" and this book deals with an adult aging and becoming very sick but doesn't really do it in a loving compassionate manner that a child can understand.

We're tossing this book, not even worth passing along to someone else. Save your time/money and get something else for your child.

28 people found this helpful

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Jennsis

Messed up story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

I never write reviews and I buy almost everything on Amazon. This book is so messed up. It starts out with a mother singing a really lame song to her kid every night. the kid grows up to be a terror and all the book would do is give your kid ideas of bad things to do throughout their childhood. But at the end of each night the mother climbs into the kids room and sings this awful song. Until the kid grows up and becomes an adult and moves away and at night the mother gets in her car and breaks into his house to hold him while he's sleeping and sing him this song. the book ends with the mother getting old and her not being able to sing the song anymore and dying in her son's arms as he sings it to her. it should be something sweet but I don't need my child having these nightmares. I don't need them getting ideas of what bad things to do as a kid and I don't need them knowing that Mommy will continuously get crazier and crazier until she dies in her arms one day. I tried to return this book and Amazon wouldn't even take it back, they refunded my money but they refuse to take the book back.

59 people found this helpful

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cassandra

A little inappropriate

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

I remember loving this book as a kid but when I was reading it to my daughter I got creepy vibes very quick. What mom creeps into her son’s room to watch him throughout the night as an adult? I also found it weird how her son did the same to her. Definitely weird and won’t be reading it to my daughter again.

2 people found this helpful

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E. A. Miller

creepy book dont order it

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 5, 2022

Verified Purchase

This is a very creepy book I bought for my children and grandchildren it is now in the trash. The whole story is so creepy, don't buy it, it is not appropriate for children. Previously over 35 years ago my mother bought this book for me and I thought it was lovely so I purchased for my newest grandchild, when I read it once again aftrer 35 years and now 2022 I found the story creepy. The mother rocks her growing son as a 9 year old and teenage after she creeps into his room at night and then her grown son after bringing a ladder and breaking into his house! Not a good purchase, sorry I wasted my money.

5 people found this helpful

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matilda sue

Books Arrived With "Wavy" Pages

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 11, 2021

Verified Purchase

I ordered TWO times, the first book was replaced for free....but the pages are wavy, as if they have been in a place where there was water, or the book ink was too wet when they bound the book. This has been a favorite of mine for years and always like to include a copy to new mothers.....to read to their child and to remind them that there is a full circle of life. I got my second book this week, same crappy issue, wavy pages. I am going to attempt to flatten the pages by either ironing them or putting a heavy object on top. If I send them back and wait for another lousy copy, the baby will be out of college and the book will not have as much meaning. SADLY disappointed with this purchase!!!!

2 people found this helpful

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3 star		1%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
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