Someday by Alison McGhee

A while ago, I discovered a classic American picture book called Love You Forever. By Robert Munsch, the book featured repetition of the lines "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living my baby you'll be." I'd not long had Harry when I bought it and I couldn't read those lines without crying. However, the illustrations in the book were kind of ... peculiar. And it ended with the mother phoning the son to tell him she was dying and him cradling her on his lap like a baby. I couldn't read it myself, let alone to Harry. So I was thrilled to be sent a copy of Someday by Alison McGhee.

The theme is similar to Munsch's book: Someday begins with the baby being born ("One day I counted your fingers and kissed each one") and ends with the child as an old woman ("Someday, a long time from now, your own hair will glow silver in the sun. And when that day comes, love, you will remember me.") but the illustrations are beautiful and the story much simpler.

Of course, I still can't read it without crying, despite the fact that the baby is a girl and I have two sons. It's a gorgeous book and would make a lovely gift for the new mother of a daughter.