Customer Reviews

The Giving Tree

5 star:		(272)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(47)

 

 

Like most of the reviewers here, I read this book as a young child. I remember it was not like any other children's book I had ever read. I remember not liking the boy as he grew older and not wanting to be like him when I grew up, but I also remember wondering why the tree gave so much for nothing in return. I had questions and I asked them.

Reading some of the reviews in here I am astonished at the degree and depth of ignorance some parents, including those describing themselves as educators, have with the themes in this book.

Here is a sampling of the conclusions:

"A cautionary tale about the human impact on the environment" -

Certainly one can draw a conclusion about the effect man has on the environment but to leave it at that is to miss the vast majority of the themes in the book. Or:

"it rationalizes and supports battered women staying with their scumbag abusers" -

The battered woman theme is so contrived that it could only be brought up by people who have nothing else on their minds but battered women. Give an inkblot to a battered woman and she sees a battered woman. Even:

"As a child, this was one of my favorite books. As an enlightened adult, it's a disturbing look at relationships"

This is a sad and ironic statement which strangely hints at the life of the person in the book! To the person that made this review: as a child you could "see"; as an adult you will make it what you want it to be. You are not enlightened; you were smarter as a child. Relationships!? Stop reading People magazine. The tree is not a symbol of people it is a symbol of bigger themes like life, unconditional love, self-awareness and introspection, even God - but relationships? Turn off your TV.

"a theme neither concrete nor relevant to young children's experiences"
"Beyond a young child's grasp"

To the one that wrote that comment, children old enough to read are old enough to understand the major themes. You must have trouble with the themes yourself and so you automatically assume others, and especially children, will too. Give your kids some credit; they are smarter than you think. Relevant!? What are you teaching your kids? Here's some advice for you: turn off the Family Channel - our world has enough conniving manipulation and prejudice for your kids to add to the mess as adults.

Sure, I'll get a lot of "no" marks for this review. But that's OK because, you see, most of the more intelligent reviews for this book are also given poor feedback. I'll be in good company.

My preschooler son received this book as a gift. I was not familiar with it from my own childhood, nor was my husband. After reading it for the first time, I thought it was the most depressing book I had ever read, and I didn't see how it was appropriate for a preschooler. My husband had exactly the same reaction. I really don't understand what this book is trying to teach. The boy never learns any kind of lesson from his terrible treatment of the tree. You're left at the end of the book feeling terribly sorry for the tree, and that's about it. Is this book supposed to be telling us you should continue to love others unconditionally even though they may take advantage of you and hurt you in every way possible? Personally, I think the lessons of love and self-sacrifice taught by Charlotte's Web are much more balanced and valuable. In the end, we decided that we didn't want our son exposed to this book, and we put it away. I am aware that this book has won many awards, but I really can't understand why.

I very much enjoyed reading this children's book! It is a must on anyones shelf! My daughter is a little young yet to find meaning to this book, but I found meaning, and have shared this book with my husband and sister. Enjoy! I know you will! [...]

Both camps are right (and wrong) about this book. I don't want to simplify things too much but it seems like the lovers tend to say it's a Great and Classic book that contains a message about altruistic love while the haters tend to call it a piece of garbage that contains a codependant, parasitic, misogynist message. It's true that there is no honest love in this book. Yes, the tree is sick and self-destructive, yes the boy is a parasite, that's all true. It's no mistake that the tree is female and her abuser is male, Silverstein wants us to be offended. Remember, the tree is not happy at what she does and allows to be done to her, though she tries to believe she is. Is it possible for adults, who presumably can understand the relationship in this book, to read it to children and encourage a conversation about the problems in it? I don't mean the problems with the book, it works too well and I don't believe it really has any, I mean the problems the characters have. Both the tree and the boy are messed up and in seeing and understanding that, readers can hopefully avoid the mistakes made by those characters. I have no doubt that this is a Great book but it's not a feel-good story to keep close to your heart. I can think of no other children's book like it. Children deserve to hear this book read by thoughtful, responsible, caring adults.

I remembered loving this book as a child, but after reading it again after many years, I found it grotesquely disturbing. I almost felt like crying after seeing the way the tree was abused by the self-centered, greedy kid who never showed any gratitude for all the tree gave to him. It disturbingly gave me the idea that this was a metaphor for a married couple where the husband beats and neglects his wife. I know this book has a moral where people should give unconditionally, but this is a ridiculous mockery of that.

If this book is supposed to be ironic (as some critics opine), it's a miserable failure, given the number of readers who take it literally and label it "inspiring." If it's not meant as irony, I find it frightening: real love means you give and give and give, even if the person you're giving to is thoroughly self-centered, takes your generosity for granted, never tries to see things from your point of view, and doesn't even bother to say "thank you." "Love your neighbor as yourself" implies that your love of others is grounded in respect for yourself. Neither the tree's behavior nor the boy's is worthy of emulation, and I would never give this book to a child.

This is much more than a simple children's book about unconditional parental love. The story can easily be read as a metaphor for man's view and treatment of the environment. In the beginning of the story the boy lives in blissful harmony with the tree, but as he grows and becomes more consumed by commercialism and modern society (the need to buy something, the need to build his own home) he slowly destroys the tree. Eventually, the boy returns to what little remains of the tree, and in effect, dies. Man's increasing efforts to live above the rules of nature and function in a society that revolves around consumption, has lead to the destruction of our planet, in a way that didn't exist in our infancy as a species. I have no idea if this is at all what Shel Silverstein had in mind while writing the book, but it does provide an interesting perspective on an already dark story that I feel is frequently over simplified.

I read the same symposium that someone else mentioned hereIt set me to thinking about this book (which I still love) in ways Ihadn't before. If you look at this story as the boy's story and not the tree's, it's possible to see it as a cautionary tale. Remember, the Tree keeps saying, "Take this or that, and then you will be happy." But after chidhood, does the boy ever seem happy? Even after he's attained the wife and family he's looked for, he wants to build a boat to sail away, being "too old and sad to play". (Although, in all fairness, maybe tragedy took his spouse from him.) At the end, he looks dejected and worn. Could Shel have been issuing a warning that anyone who does nothing but take will never be truly content? Perhaps if the boy had learned to give in return, he would have had a more contented life.Although I do see the boy as finally learning his lesson toward the end. When he returns to the stump at the end, he has to know that the tree has nothing left to give. But he is finally ready to give the tree the only thing she ever asked of him...companionship. I kinda see in the old man's face a realization of what he's done and a repentance.There's another metaphor for this as well...the metaphor of parent to child. How many children never see or appreciate the sacrifices their parents have made for them till it is too late, or almost too late? This could have been another warning Shel was issuing. END

I have a personal acquantance with this lovely book. For five long, glorious years, I dated this beautiful woman. We were very much in love, although it seemed that I was the one who tried the hardest to make sure she was happy. After a while, our relationship started to disintigrate, as all things of wonder usually do. I tried harder and harder to make things right, although it was more like a force of nature tearing us apart. I gave and I gave and she took and she took and she tried to give something back but, perhaps, it was well beyond her capacity at that point when things were somehow ruined. As we split, over a dark and miserable Christmas, one of my gifts was this book, with a very personal inscription written inside. It began, "To (---), my giving tree . . ." This showed absolute understanding not only of our lives and our relationship for so long (she was abandoned by her parents at 18 and I, a few years older, took her in and saved her life) and also a beautiful understanding of the message of this book: Love is cruel and there can only be one victor, no matter how much emotion is reciprocated. All things die in nature, be it a person, a plant, a flower or a feeling. Everything ends.

I wish to thank my anonymous ex-girlfriend for this lovely gift. It helped me through many of the darkest hours of seemingly perpetual lonliness.

You'll have to put me down with the vocal minority with a strong negative reaction to this story. I've read and admired Silverstein's children's poetry, but I don't admire this book. The relationship between the boy and the tree is an amazingly accurate metaphor for an abusive relationship -- one side endlessly giving and in the process destroying itself, the other endlessly taking and never being satisfied. I doubt Silverstein intended this parallel, but it speaks loudly and clearly to me. It's not an image I'd want in the mind of a son or daughter of mine as he or she grows up.

Paula