The Giving Tree

Title: The Giving Tree
Author / Illustrator: Shel Silverstein
Published by: Harper Collins Publishers


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 grew older, his needs change and the tree gives him everything in order to help him be happy. When the boy is gone and the tree is left with nothing, she is happy or so it seems. 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 friendship they once shared, and both are happy once again.

I had never read this book until I last week, 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. The pictures are plain and simple lines with no color however have so much depth. They transform 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 proved by his return- older, wiser, and more appreciative. When reading this as a mother I feel 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. I truly believe that it is every mother's hope that their 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.