The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
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Book Reviews of The Giving Tree
Book Review: From a Jewish Educator's Perspective -A Tu Bishvat Must Read
Summary: 5 Stars
"And then the tree was happy... But not really." Ever since I made the decision to become a rabbi several years ago, I have had a recurring vision of my future rabbinate. In this vision, I am sitting in a nursery school classroom at the synagogue reading The Giving Tree, my favorite children's book, to the class. It is a tender story with many lessons to give about a young boy's relationship with a tree. Through the years I have discovered many of the metaphors that abound throughout this parable - metaphors about nature, parents, and God. The tree has a simple goal, and that is to make the little boy happy. When he asks the tree for money, she suggests that he sell her apples. When he asks for a house, she offers her branches as lumber. He keeps asking and she keeps giving, until all that is left of the tree is a stump when the young boy returns as an old man. And he sits on it.
This is a wonderful story for teachers to use when discussing the law of bal tashchit - the Torah's ban on wanton destruction of nature. Our role as God's children is to repair the world (l'taken olam b'malkhut shaddai) and we must be careful not to exploit such precious gifts as trees, and nature's other resources.
It is telling that as the boy matures into an old man, Silverstein continues to refer to him as the "boy." This shows that the tree continued to give even as the boy grew, just as this wonderful book continues to give even as the audience of young boys and young girls gets older. People of all ages will appreciate the feelings of both joy and tears that this book elicits. This is why I no longer only envision myself as a rabbi sharing The Giving Tree with nursery school children, but with "children" of all ages as well. Each time I read this story, I am taken away and then I am happy... But not really.
Book Review: A children's book which never loses its power
Summary: 5 Stars
The Giving Tree is a beautiful book about a tree who loves a little boy. In the beginning, the love the two share is enough to make them both happy. As the boy grows older, his needs change and the tree gives him everything in order to help him achieve happiness. When the boy is gone and the tree is left with nothing, she is happy, but not really. Eventually the boy returns and the tree has nothing left to give, but the boy has changed and no longer wants anything from the tree other than the companionship they once shared, and both are happy once again.I fell in love with this book the first time it was read to me, and my feelings have never changed. As I child I knew it was a sad book, but I didn't know why. Now that I am an adult, I can understand the cost of unconditional love and I know why the tree was sad. The fact that this book inspires so much debate is a testament to the power of Shel Silverstein's writing. There is a lesson in this book and a powerful message. For me, the key point is that in the end, the love the tree had for the boy was vindicated by his return- older, wiser, and more appreciative. My mother bought me this book when I was young because she thought it had a poignant lesson to teach. My mother tells me that the tree is every mother, and that the sadness felt by the tree is the sadness every mother feels when her child grows up and grows apart. She says every mother's hope is that her child will return someday, wanting nothing more than to to sit together in silence and to be happy. Anyone who has ever loved someone enough to let them go will understand the painful choice highlighted in The Giving Tree.
I love this book and I give it to special people in my life to celebrate our friendship. I higly recommend this book to adult and child alike.
Book Review: A different way to look at this story
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of my favorite books to give to expectant mommys with a verse on the inside that says
"The heart of a mother
is a deep abyss
at the bottom of which
you will always find
forgiveness. "
Honore de Balzac
I read the book like this..
The tree gives and gives, till there is not much left of her to give to the boy that she loves so much. Yes the boy takes and takes and takes and never once says thank you.
In the begining the boy AND the tree are happy. The boy runs and plays and has a grand old time. He also isn't asking for anything more than an apple for a snack, a few fallen leaves, and the shade the tree provides.
The older he gets, the more he asks for, and with each thing he asks for the more and more unhappy he becomes. He was still a jubilent boy when he asked for the money. When he comes back wanting a boat, we can see that life has not been good for the boy. He is no longer happy. By the time he returns for the last time, he is a broken old man, who has nothing but a stump of a tree to keep him company. This whole time, the tree has given of herself freely. Never asking for anything in return, and always excited when the one she loved so came to visit.
I think the moral of the story is more along the lines of this.
Through out the story the tree is happy, happy to give her apples, and even more happy when the boy returns to sit upon her.
The boy, however, starts out happy as a child playing and jumping, and finally ends up a tired, unhappy, broken old man.
So being the one who gives freely and happily, even if it's not appreciated, is always better than being the taker, who ends up alone and unhappy.
Book Review: or taking boy?
Summary: 5 Stars
recently to my pleasant surprise I found a copy of The Giving Tree for a quarter at the local library book sale. I brought it home & showed my wife and she said: "I can't believe you got that book, it's so sad". I'll admit I may have scoffed a little. Then I read it and darn near found my eyes growing moist. I just felt so sorry for the tree that I wanted to pistol whip that selfish, acquisitive kid/man. Which brings us to the question: Is it possible that this slender children's book is one of the most insightful comments ever written on the "Me" generation?This may strike you as absurd, but take a look at the First Things Symopsium about the book which can be found online. For my own part, I read the book as a tragedy, and despite my initial reaction, the boy/man strikes me as the tragic figure. He is completely consumed by selfish concerns and what he can get from the tree. The story could equally well be called The Taking Boy. And in the twilight of his life, what does he have left after taking and taking and taking? Nothing. In fact, he has to return to the tree and ask for more. The final scene seems less of a "reconciliation" than one more desperate act of selfish consumption on his part. It reminded me of Citizen Kane, with Charles Foster Kane looking back at his life from his death bed and realizing how unfulfilled he is.
Silverstein was just a tad older than the Baby Boomers, but his status as a pop icon rested on their enthusiasm. So it's ironic that they made him a best-selling author by blindly reading this truly devastating critique of their cohort and their lifestyle to their kids. Ironic, but delicious.
GRADE: Giving Tree: A+
Book Review: All I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.
Summary: 5 Stars
THE GIVING TREE has become a piece of classic modern children's literature. It is the story of a tree who gives everything she has to a little boy. At first the boy loves in return, but then he begins to take and take and give nothing in return, until finally after many years the tree is nothing more than a battered stump. The boy eventually returns to the tree and though he never acknowledges any selfish behavior the tree offers him what little she has left and the relationship between the two is restored.I get teared up almost every time I read this story. To me, it seems to be a wonderful allegory about the nature of God's love and his relationship to humankind. God gives and gives and gives and we take and take and take, yet He loves us still, even though we are plotting our doom and will one day be brought low and destroyed for our transgressions. However, I also realize that there are several other ways of reading this books, too (there's the whole environmental take). Whatever way you read it, I find it amazing that the pot smoking Silverstein, who was known for using racy language, was also one of the foremost children's authors of the modern era and was able to write such a moving work. Knowing that, the effect of the story's moral is augmented.
Anyway. Some might think that the moral lesson in the giving tree isn't right for young children to know. I disagree. Life's not always fair and though there are many children who see the selfishness of the little boy, many fail to see the selfishness in themselves and therefore miss out on the book's main point. A wonderful, powerful, and moving children's story.