Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This is still one of my favorite books but I wouldn't necessarily call it a children's book. Once my husband read it outloud to our adult sunday school class when we were doing indept course on parenting asnd there wasn't a dry eye in the room.
It wasn't considered a children's book in this house either. The sentiment was wasted on my rough and tumble offspring. I saved several books from their childhood, but that wasn't one of them.
I've read other theories on what the author was really writing about, but I hadn't heard this one.
It is a very sad book, I gave it to my daughter at age 10. She couldn't understand why the mother would climb the ladder into her adult son's house so I explained why us mother's love for our children never ends. My dd is only 15, but I know these last three years are going very fast--gosh I'm tearing up even typing about it!!
The first time that I ever read this book was when my children were preschoolers and my mother was dying (within days of her passing). I never associated it with helicopter parenting (mom rocking her adult son) or even with how your children grow up. I always associated with how I was grown up, like the father in the book, and my mother was sick and was dying and I would hug and comfort her, just like she did to me when I was a baby.
That was over twenty years and I am still not able to read the book or even see the cover without crying.
I can see how the song would clearly relate to a having a stillborn baby. My niece's first child died shortly before birth and she will say things like "He will always be my baby" because, of course, he will always be a baby and can never grow older.
I recall picking this up at some point while shopping and putting it back. For whatever reason, it didn't appeal to me as a book to read to my kids. It might have been the "creep" factor.
I get why some people initially found this book creepy but given that it was written as part of the grief process I don't get why people still need to keep calling the guy who wrote it for his dead children creepy.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
