The Giving Tree 40th Anniversary Edition Book with CD

I fell in love with this book the first time it was read to me, and my feelings have never changed. As I child I knew it was a sad book, but I didn't know why. Now that I am an adult, 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. 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 vindicated by his return- older, wiser, and more appreciative. My mother bought me this book when I was young because she thought it had a poignant lesson to teach. My mother tells me 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. She says every mother's hope is that her 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.

I love this book and I give it to special people in my life to celebrate our friendship. I higly recommend this book to adult and child alike.


What can be read into it   November 23, 2006
Newton Ooi (Phoenix, Arizona United States)
19 out of 22 found this review helpful

Few books are as simple to read and open to interpretation as this children's classic by one of the greats of 20th century children's literature. The story is simple, a boy takes different things from a tree his entire life, the tree gives without question, and at the end, both are together crippled with only each other for company. Out of such a simple story can be drawn many lessons that are appropriate not just for children, but for human beings of all ages. First, total self-sacrifice only leads to happiness as long as those you give to are happy. If the last condition does not hold, then the giver can never truly be happy. Second, always taking will never make you happy, for you will always find something more that you need or want to have. Third, and probably most controversial, this book provides a fitting commentary to the behavior of mankind towards nature. Written in the 1960s at the ascendancy of the modern environmental movement in the USA, the story is a perfect corollary of how man takes from nature for various uses his entire life, without ever thinking of the long term consequences for both him and nature. The tree of course represents nature, as few objects are such a symbol of nature within the American psyche.

Overall, a great book for people of all ages. It is one of those few books that provides morals and lessons for all readers, and each time you reread it, you learn something different.


Not for sensitive young children   January 5, 2008
Dr. Mommy
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

My four year old son received this book for a Christmas present, and couldn't wait to read it. As the story progressed and the tree slowly got amputated, his face grew somber, and by the end of the book he began sobbing. It took ten minutes to console him enough that he could stop crying, and he was unable to discuss any details about why he found the story so sad. I can appreciate the differing viewpoints expressed in other reviews here - the story could equally represent the selfless parent nurturing the child who eventually perhaps realizes and appreciates that love, or a selfish boy growing into a selfish man who exploits and abuses the self-sacrificing tree to death. I think it could be a useful book to explore themes of morality, love, giving and taking, environmental issues, for an older child or for adults. It was traumatic for my son, however. And personally, from the time I first read this book as a child until now, I have found it a uniquely depressing story.


PLEASE DON'T LET YOUR KIDS READ THIS (at the very least not ALONE!)   April 20, 2007
JoeyD (los gatos, ca)
30 out of 39 found this review helpful

In an interview in the early 60's Silverstein said that he wrote this little book for adults. I remember receiving this book when I was about five years old and it depressed the hell out of me. First off, that ugly little troll of a kid was a brat with a capital B. He later went from being a bratty kid to an ugly, self-centered troll of a man. Talk about taking that little lady (the tree) for a ride! That SOB used her up and used her up but good. And for what? In the end, it didn't even matter and neither one of them were happy. That tree also infuriated me as a kid. Why don't you tell that jerk to take a hike! Why do you let this idiot take advantage of you like this? What kind of friend does that to another friend? The bottom line, this is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. It makes novels like "Crime & Punishment" and "The Jungle" a joy to read. To this day, I still get depressed every time I even see this book. One of my in-laws wanted to buy this book for our new born baby as a gift and I told her that that would be fine as long as it's on his sixteenth birthday.

I know I am going to get a lot of negative votes for this review. Yet, if I can just get one person out there to stop giving their kids this very depressing book to read, then this was worth it. I like the book and I really enjoy most of Silverstein's work. This book is what he is known best for, but unfortunately he has so much other work out there, which is much better and far more conducive for children than this gut-wrenching story. The world is depressing enough as it is. Kids don't need a story like this before they go to bed at night. If they are anything like I was as a child, this book will depress and addle them like no other.