Love You Forever: New Pop-Up Edition

Written by Robert Munsch

Illustrated by Sheila McGraw

Paper engineering by Bruce Foster

Firefly Books

978-1-770859654

14 pp.

All ages

September 2017

Though not Robert Munsch's first book, Love You Forever is perhaps his best known, with astronomical sales over the decades and inclusion on multiple lists of top books of all time.   Published in 1986, Love You Forever is an iconic picture book about a parent's love for her child and it is now available in a pop-up version.

From Love You Forever Pop-Up Edition

The story begins with a mother holding her new baby and singing a lullaby to him:

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

Then the boy becomes a toddler and gets into much mischief but still his mother sneaks into his room and rocks him back and forth while she sings the lullaby to him. This continues as the boy becomes nine, and then a teenager and finally an adult who moves away.  Still his mother sneaks into his room, rocks him and sings her lullaby.  But when she is too old to come see him, he visits her and sings the lullaby she cannot, revising it appropriately:

I'll love you forever,
I'll love you for always,
As long as I'm living
My Mommy you'll be.  

From Love You Forever Pop-Up Edition

The story ends with the son returning home, supposedly after his mother has passed, and he sings the lullaby to his own daughter, just as his mother sang to him.

Because of the alternative format with fold-out flaps and pull- and push-tabs to create three-dimensional illustrations, this Love You Forever is only 14 pages long.  Still the whole story is there, Robert Munsch's original words and Sheila McGraw's illustrations, now brought to life with the paper engineering of Bruce Foster, an American paper magician. (You can see a demonstration of the rocking chair pop-up on his website Paperpops.) There's not much I can say about the book Love You Forever that has not already been said time and time again but I can address the novelty of Bruce Foster's paperwork in adding a third dimension to the art and hence the story.  Though some of the illustrations may appear dated–check out the clothing, the computer and the hairstyles–there is a freshness that comes with the pop-ups, bringing new life to the pages of Love You Forever.  Parents may still be reading the story and singing the lullaby to their children but now children can interact with the story, pushing and lifting and pulling tabs, to help tell that story and appreciate the love between parent and child.

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For anyone who will be reading Love You Forever and has never heard the melody to the lullaby the mother sings, Robert Munsch shares it on a YouTube video uploaded on January 13, 2011 by tvoparents at https://youtu.be/YFX6pdwJWpA.