Book Review: The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein is about a tree who loved and shared with this little boy all throughout the little boy's life from when he was young to when he grows old. The tree lets the boy swing on her branches and pick her leaves and climb her trunk and eat her apples. And they would play games like hide and seek and when the boy was tired, he would sleep in the tree's shade. When the boy grows older, he doesn't see the tree as often. When the boy finally visits her and the tree wants him to play with her, the boy says he is too big to play with the tree. He tells the tree that he needs money so the tree tells him to pick her apples and sell them to get money. So that is what the boy does and the tree is happy. A long time as passes before the boy visits the tree again. This time, the boy wants a wife and children so he needs a house and the tree tells the boy that he can cut off her branches to make a house. Another long period of time passes before the boy visits again; this time the boy is old and he wants a boat. So the tree tells him to cut down her trunk and make a boat. So the boy cuts down her trunk and makes a boat. "The tree was happy, but not really." Then when the boy visits again the last time, the tree says she has nothing to give him because she is just an old stump now. And the boy says that he doesn't need very much now, just a place to sit down and rest and so he sits down on her stump and the tree is happy. This book talks about sharing and giving.