Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I know myself to be in the minority on this one, but this book has given me the willies ever since I first discovered it while working in a children's bookstore. Unlike 'The Runaway Bunny', a book which comforts children in an age-appropriate and metaphorical way, 'Love You Forever' seems to be written to comfort parents. The book only details the negative things that the son does, seemingly implies that the mother loves him 'anyway'. The pictures are distinctly odd, giving one the impression that the illustrator has never looked on a living teenager. While the idea that a mother loves her son no matter what he does is very sweet and comforting, the idea of an old lady driving across town with a ladder strapped to her car in order to climb into her grown son's window is not. There is no father in this book, making the obvious Freudian assumptions a little too real for comfort. Books like 'Guess How Much I Love You?' and 'Emma Bean' show just as much love, but in a gentler, more subtle way that I think children can appreciate better than the literal message of unconditional love of in 'Love You Forever'. Although I've had this book recommended to me many a time since my son was born, I think I'll stick to books that both of us are comfortable with.