The Giving Tree

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Summary: The Giving Tree
Review: This book The Giving Tree is about a little boy who talks to a tree and the tree talks back. The boy starts to get older and older as the boy gets older he does not visit the tree as much. When the boy visits the tree he always asks for something.
This book teaches kids not to rely on one thing to help you because the source might not always be there. The source could run out of what ever it is giving to some one.
The age level for The Giving Tree is six and up. I say that because if you are under the age of six you might not understand it.
I think that The Giving Tree was a good book because it had a good story line. It was also interesting how the boy kept getting older and asking for things. Over all it was a really good book.

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Summary: I'm scared by the picture on the back
Review: I like this book and I take it out whenever I'm feeling a little too happy. I have been tempted, however, to tape a piece of cardboard over the picture on the back cover. Yikes, that guy looks like he chews glass for fun.
Besides that, has anyone besides me ever wondered if this book was just a metaphor for for the feelings Mr. Silverstein had for his voracious audience? "Here, I give and I give and I give, but you never appreciate me, but maybe when you're old and too wizened to be distracted by the future, then you might appreciate me like you did when you were little." Whenever I turn a page I feel like I'm ripping someone's arms off or something. It's kind of like that book, "The Monster at the End of This Book" by Jon Stone and Michael Smollin, which everyone should read.

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Summary: Appreciation ...and the tree AND boy were happy.
Review: I love the story of 'The Giving Tree', otherwise nicknamed by some as 'The Taking Boy'. It seems to be a tale that you either love or hate.

What I take away from this story is that of appreciation for others. Initially the boy and tree play together enjoying each others friendship. As the boy grows older he takes more and more from the tree, believing that the more he has, the happier he will be, until at last the tree is an old stump and the boy is an old grump. But, it doesn't end there...

The old grump returns to the stump, as he finally realises what the tree has known from the very beginning - how to be happy. He has learned to appreciate his friend, not for what she can give him, but for her companionship.

For me, this is a beautiful gift to share with a friend.

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Summary: The Taking Boy!
Review: I will never understand why people love this horrible book. Yes, there are somethings that are worth giving your life for, but a selfish little boy is not one of them. I have never understood the "lesson" of this sad book. I hope my children are neither the tree nor the boy -- instead I hope they learn to give when they can and take when they need.

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Summary: Laying on a guilt trip
Review: I didn't read this book to my daughter when she was a child, but someone gave it to her for her new baby. When I read it, it was all I could do not to take it away and hope that no one would miss it, because I don't want my granddaughter to have this story! It is just too sad, and little children should not be reading sad stories. Yes, it is a meaningful parable, but tiny children don't need meaningful parables. They should have joy, not deep thoughts.

The mothers who love it probably have a secret martyr complex. When I read the review quoting the mother who said the tree is "all mothers" I thought this is someone who is laying the foundation for a major guilt trip later in life. The boy is selfish and never does appreciate the tree, and that's OK with the tree. But I'll bet that mother is someone who will tell her grown child "look at all I did for you, and you don't appreciate me."

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Summary: The Giving Tree
Review: This book is absolutely *precious* I gave it to my youngest son on his 13th birthday as an extra gift. It's so touching that it still brings a little tear to our eyes. My son is now almost 20 years old and keeps it in a special box so that some day he can give it to a child of his own. This children's book isn't just for the little ones, the older ones appreciate it too, it carries such deep feelings...enjoy.

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Summary: depressing
Review: I remembered this being a favorite childhood book of mine, but as I read it to my own children for the first time, I was very disturbed. I haven't read it to them again. I'm in agreement with the reviewer who said he'd outgrown it. It doesn't hold any social value at all to me. We've come so far from abusive relationships in this day and age. I refuse to introduce the idea to my children.

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Summary: teach your child to be a doormat?
Review: I never understood the appeal of this book. The tree is used by the boy, who gives nothing back. What's the message here?

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Summary: Poor example for children
Review: I would never want my two boys to act like the boy in this story. Not only is he always selfish and grasping, the tree is given a female gender, thus teaching boys to devalue women, and girls not to value themselves. It is a dangerous message. If I were to ever allow my sons to read this book, it would be with the express purpose of explaining to them what is wrong with the story. I found absolutely nothing heartfelt or tender about this book.

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Summary: A children's story without a happy ending
Review: "And the tree was happy." Those are the last words in The Giving Tree -- but the story leaves the reader feeling sad. One could say that in the end the boy enjoyed all that the tree had to give and the tree enjoyed giving -- so both were happy. Or, that the man used the tree to give him everything he wanted in his life, money, marriage, house, and boat. Still, in the book, the boy and tree spend most of their life apart and unhappy aand this creates a feeling of sadness in the reader. The written words say "happy" but create a feeling of sadness.

On the surface, this is just a story about a tree and a boy who love each other. On a deeper level, the story could be a metaphor for most relationships. Mother, father, mentor, friend, sister, brother, wife, husband. In this story the tree is female and the boy never is referred to as a man in the story, even though he grows older. Sometimes we are the giver and sometimes we accept the gifts given to us. The happiest time in the boy's life was in the beginning, when he loved the tree back.

As the boy grew older and began trying to find happiness in things like money, marriage, house, boat -- he became needy and unhappy. Finally, at the end, the tree is only a stump and thinks he has nothing left to offer that the boy values. But the boy no longer needs anything outside his relationship with the tree. Boy and tree are together again. In the end, the tree is happy and the boy has what he needs -- a quiet place to sit and rest.

It is an inspired and disturbing story.