The Giving Tree
by Shel Silverstein
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Book Reviews of The Giving Tree
Book Review: the Nazis would have loved it
Summary: 1 Stars
"Tender story"? This piece of garbage is the most crude and devious children's book that I have come across. Would have made perfect training material for the Hitler Youth or for Stalin's and Saddam's subjects.
Amazing, how eagerly the good moms are lapping it up, blindly falling for platitudes like "unconditional love"--even when that stuff is rooted in and leading to depravity. And then, I'm not really surprised since so many parents seem to make and bake their children as substitutes for pets. With the help of dubious tools like role models--even the good ones are bad--rules, and clichees your noble efforts will turn your offspring into mental and emotional amoebae. Nice!
Anyway, the potential book buyer will have to choose: Do you want to break your kids' spine for good and prevent them from becoming responsible individuals (brown-nosing, people-pleasing employees are always in demand)? - Or, do you care to raise children who can think for themselves, who value themselves and others, and who can act out of consideration for self-interest and environment. In this case, teach them to say "NO" freely and fearlessly!
It is irresponsible and outright maddening, when meek and humble people interpret "love thy neighbor as thyself" as "mutilate yourself for your neighbor's sake". Our species is so messed up, not because we don't love our neighbors enough. We are so creepy because we do love our neighbors exactly as much as we love ourselves: NOT AT ALL!
If you teach your brats to--God forbid--love themselves, they won't need The Giving Tree. They'll be generous with themselves AND with others.
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.
Book Review: And the tree was happy, but not really: A 35 year old reflects...
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been a Shel Silverstein admirer since I first received Where the Sidewalk Ends as a first grader back in 1976. The way Silverstein combines stark sketches with punchy language and ideas could woo almost any child.
As with most of his work, what makes it funny or appealing is his ability to write about humans at their most vulnerable or disillusioned states (poems like "The Land of Happy," "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout," "Jumping Rope" come to mind), and kids love that raw edge to him. The Giving Tree, however, is surprisingly subversive. It looks purely sweet at first, seeming to be about a love between a tree and a boy, and the beauty of doing anything for someone you love.
But it is TRAGIC. The tree ends up with nothing (she's a stump for him to eventually sit on), and the boy ends up an unhappy and lonely old man who has exploited (devestated) something he once loved.
Now, thirty years after my first reading of it, I'm not sure where I stand. This book was meaningful to me as a child--there was complexity in it, in giving and taking and paying consequences (and the pictures evoked great emotion). On the other hand, an obvious and simple message it could send is that it is good to give (and to take) at all cost.
In the end, I don't think the book should be avoided, by any means, because of its seemingly "selfless" message, but I do think it should be discussed (even in simple terms with the smallest child) as an eye-opening rendering of the danger of giving too much and losing yourself in the process.
Book Review: A Profound Parable of Grace
Summary: 5 Stars
Two boys, Brennan and Saul, were childhood friends in Brooklyn, New York. As they grew up and took separate paths, Brennan became a Christian speaker and preacher, and Saul, a Jew, converted to Christianity as well. Years later upon meeting on the streets of New York, each man discovered that the other had also found Christ. In the course of the conversation Brennan asked Saul what he, as a Jew, thought about the person of Jesus. Saul told Brennan that he would think about it and get back to him the next day. When they met the next day, Saul, pen-named Shel (Silverstein), told the parable of the Giving Tree to Brennan as the answer to the question of what Jesus meant to him. Brennan urged Shel to have it published, and it has since become one of the best-selling children's books ever.This is a parable about the boundless nature of the Grace of God. Significantly Shel chose to write about a "Giving Tree", while God also chose the Giving Tree of the cross to demonstrate His love for us. We often come to God with petty request after petty request, sometimes ignoring the tremendous sacrifice that God has made which enables us to ask for anything at all.
There is much symbolism in the book and certainly it has other applications for a broad audience, as parables often do. This is a life-changing story. One which should be read to children by adults and to adults by children. In fact the essence of this story has been told to us by our Heavenly Father for centuries.
Buy this book. In fact buy several copies and give them away.
Book Review: How Life Is And Can Be...
Summary: 5 Stars
Deceptively simple...at one level this book is about a person and a tree and their relationship, but of course we know that it is a metaphor for the relationships between persons.
It is a widely popular book, and has the potential to teach the reader about the art and sacrifice of giving, about the ways one may or may not receive gracefully, about love that is unconditional and about the ways that a person can change during a lifespan.
Many teachers, both secular and in religious settings, use this book as a way to convey these layers of meaning. While it will work as a children's book, it does not have to be limited to that audience. I have seen it as an effective adult learning resource and in a youth group, too.
While I do understand why the message of the tree is unsettling to some parents, the reality is that one is committed to sacrificial giving when one becomes a parent. It goes with the territory of love. So I would encourage those who are struggling with that part of the story to allow themselves to grow beyond where they are now. Seldom is a relationship, whether it be a marriage, friendship or parent-child relationship, "equal". At some times, one gives more and the other receives more in the relationship. This book helps us understand and accept that fact, too.
You may also see the relationship between the child and the tree as a hopeful message about dealing with loss, even death. So, do read this book and let its message intertwine with your own life's story.