The Giving Tree 40th Anniversary Edition Book with CD
by Shel Silverstein
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Book Summary Information
Author: Shel SilversteinBrand: Mudpuppy / Shel Silverstein
Illustrator: Shel Silverstein
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-03
ISBN: 0060586753
Number of pages: 64
Publisher: HarperCollins
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780060586751
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Giving Tree 40th Anniversary Edition Book with CD
Book Review: Misconceptions addressed
Summary: 5 Stars
I began reading the reviews for this book and once I started I couldn't stop. Interpretations abound, from one end of the spectrum to the other, and even those with a mutual delight (or dislike) have many conflicting perspectives about what the moral was meant to be. So I went searching for everything I could discover about the author (whose poems, as well as this book, I've loved since childhood). I uncovered the following:
Shel Silverstein, when asked about this book's meaning, would say no more than this: "It's just a relationship between two people; one gives and the other takes." So I'm going to assume those who judge the book (positively or negatively) based on its environmentalist "message" are reading into it more than what the author intended.
Most of us, however, seem to recognize this book as a very human story. Whether we like it or hate it, it resonates with too many to be dismissed as anything else. A number of people reject it as too sad for children (one woman actually stated that children should be joyful and not have "deep thoughts.") Others say that the ending is happy (for various reasons). The author, however, DID consider the ending sad. In an interview, Silverstein said that his editor Ursula Nordstrom let him keep the sad ending "because life, you know, has pretty sad endings. You don't have to laugh it up even if most of my stuff is humorous." Happy endings, magic solutions in children's books, he says, "create an alienation" in the child who reads them. "The child asks why I don't have this happiness thing you're telling me about, and comes to think when his joy stops that he has failed, that it won't come back."
Others rejected the book because of its supposed negative message for girls (that they should give their all to the man in their life) or because of a perceived mockery of women, but NOWHERE in the interviews or stories about him did I find any evidence of this whatsoever. Instead, his friends seemed to think of him as *very* giving, and it appears the friendships he had, he kept. Though many may not know this, Silverstein was accomplished in many other areas, not the least of which was his talent as a song-writer (he wrote "A Boy Named Sue," for example). Anytime someone would offer even the smallest bit of advise that he would use in a song, he would cut them in for *equal* credit on the royalties (from his poorest days to his richest). Now, I don't know if that seems like a small thing to some, but I find it an amazing piece of...what would you call it? I'd say selflessness or at the very least a generous spirit. And after reading everything I could about him, I am convinced that in this story he was definitely intending to portray deep beauty in the tree's giving but with unflinching, if tender, honesty.
In closing, I think former Times entertainment editor Charles Champlin said it best:
"His charming book seems to me to prove again that in art, less is more, and that what is true can always be simply said."
Summary of The Giving Tree 40th Anniversary Edition Book with CD
"Once there was a tree . . . and she loved a little boy." So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.
Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk . . . and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave.
This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return.
To say that this particular apple tree is a "giving tree" is an understatement. In Shel Silverstein's popular tale of few words and simple line drawings, a tree starts out as a leafy playground, shade provider, and apple bearer for a rambunctious little boy. Making the boy happy makes the tree happy, but with time it becomes more challenging for the generous tree to meet his needs. When he asks for money, she suggests that he sell her apples. When he asks for a house, she offers her branches for lumber. When the boy is old, too old and sad to play in the tree, he asks the tree for a boat. She suggests that he cut her down to a stump so he can craft a boat out of her trunk. He unthinkingly does it. At this point in the story, the double-page spread shows a pathetic solitary stump, poignantly cut down to the heart the boy once carved into the tree as a child that said "M.E. + T." "And then the tree was happy... but not really." When there's nothing left of her, the boy returns again as an old man, needing a quiet place to sit and rest. The stump offers up her services, and he sits on it. "And the tree was happy." While the message of this book is unclear (Take and take and take? Give and give and give? Complete self-sacrifice is good? Complete self-sacrifice is infinitely sad?), Silverstein has perhaps deliberately left the book open to interpretation. (All ages) --Karin Snelson
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