I think the illustrations were a poor match for the text. I've questioned why Munsch approved them, as he originally wrote the story for two of his children who were born stillborn.
My take is that it's a positive spin on the "Stabat Mater" type song of parental lament over a dead child, an attempt by the author to imagine what could have been through the lens of melancholic parental love. Maybe it should be taken literally...that the mother, if given the opportunity to see her children through life, would have hung on their every treasured breath in joy and gratitude.
Wow. Even writing that made me tear up. I'm a hot mess.
See and I really, really got that (without knowing that this was the story behind the story) and identified with it being pregnant with my firstborn after many early miscarriages and the ten years of trying. At that point I was maybe 16 weeks and I felt like this one was going to be a keeper (but in the back of my mind I knew that it wasn't 100% given that there would actually be a baby). He is now 13 and I still look at him in amazement and know exactly how that momma felt holding her baby at night even when he was a grown teen and grown man across town.
