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Summary: Call me a curmudgeon, but . . .
Review: I find this book profoundly disturbing. I've been told that the tree's endless giving and the child's continual taking are metaphors for parenting, but in my experience parenting has as many rewards as sacrifices. Hopefully my children won't grow up to be such thoughtless, greedy pigs as the boy in the book, and neither will they subject themselves to relationships that are so horribly one-sided and pathetic. (This book as a wedding present? Please, NO!)Give me A Giraffe and a Half any day, but spare me the gushing about The Giving Tree.
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Summary: A book everyone should read
Review: The Giving Tree is a venerable American classic about the art of giving.But on the higher, symbolic level, the tree represents God. Aside from being a natural object (non-manmade), the tree is also much larger in statute than the boy. Furthermore, every time the boy comes to the tree to ask for something, the tree always provides it without protest. Throughout life, the boy and the tree remained friends. Even at death, the tree was still there for the boy, providing a place to sit and rest until he died. Parents should read this book to and with their children, and every school library should have at least one copy. I was recommended this book by my fourth grade Sunday School teacher. While I didn't understand the symbolism then, it came to me while I was away at college and finding out more about how much of a giver our sovereign God really is. Read it, appreciate it, buy it.
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Summary: A Piscesan Look at Life
Review: As a Pisces, giving is a part of your personna. You give to all around you and expect the least in return. You want only to have their self in return. This book, written when I was very young, reminds me that having faith in the one's you love is more important than what they give to you in return. You give, not out of self-loathing or self-depreceation, you give out of the wholeness it gives to you in return. When I recieved this book, many, many years ago, my best friend, Tom, knew exactly the kind of person that I was and always will be. I am a giver. I will give in every sense of the word. I give because it makes me happy. I give because it makes me whole. I give because it makes me believe in love.
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Summary: an introduction & indoctrination of codependency
Review: i would actually like to rate this book with 5 burnt-out stars - because that is what these sentiments can do, cause bright shining stars to lose all their glimmer & sparkle. please ~please!~ i beg you: DO NOT SHARE THIS BOOK! when i was younger, i thought it was a beautiful testament of love & i even gave it to my "first true love". it was this sort of sick propaganda that kept us together long after either of us were happy and that fed us losing any concept of who we were as individuals. it is this sort of self-sacrificing martyrdom that makes cynics out of romantics. it is this psuedo-selflessness that breeds selfish broken people. even imagine the term "self less" without self. it reminds me of hubris! there are far too many people hurting as it is without encouraging them to be proud of being a doormat. if you want a simple book that provides a better blueprint for relationships ~ look to the same author! _the missing piece_ & especially _the missing piece meets the big o_ are two of my absolute all-time favorites (and definitely "must-haves" in the wake of the putrid philosophies this expounded) remember: "the best relationships are where the love for one-another overshadows the need for one another" (my apologies to the dali lama for probably inadvertantly butchering his quote, but the sentiment is solid within me & i hope that it will passed onto many more instead of the converse of this which is what _the giving tree_ promotes)
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Summary: An awful, awful book about selfishness and ingratitude
Review: Let me make this perfectly clear: adults think this is great b/c they identify with the selfless, sacrificing, giving tree. If you know children, you know that they identify with the young boy and not the tree. His role is to take from the tree, and then come back to take and take some more - without gratitude or giving back. Only his "taking" endures. If you listen to children tell you about this book, you will know I'm right. Please skip this book; Shel Silverstein has so many wonderful others!
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Summary: Happiness is...Being a doormat
Review: This book is beautifully written and illustrated, but the message it promotes is horribly disturbing. "Girls: If you love someone, you should give them everything you have, no matter how thoughtlessly they treat you and no matter how little their life plans include you" The (female) tree's unconditional love for the thoughtless little boy is heartbreaking. Who came up with the idea that "unconditional love" is a good or noble concept to teach our kids? Selfish jerks like the little boy in this story do not deserve love. Mature love should be earned; to maintain it requires work and sacrifice from both parties. Shel Silverstein is one of the most gifted children's writers around; buy any of his other books, but think twice about this one.
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Summary: Wonderful children book also meaningful for adults
Review: This is a great book, which I read to my 3 years old son, and we both love it. I really think that there is a lot of friendship messages that are in this book, and I just hope that kids who read would grow up to be not selfish, kind human beings. The illustrations are very awesome too, and I wonder every time I open it, how simple, and in the same time powerful are the pictures. I really enjoy it a lot, and recommend it to everybody!
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Summary: A lot more to this one than meets the eye. . .
Review: . . .I've read through many of the reviews here, and find that this book is one you either love or hate. It's also interesting how many different interpretations there are of what Shel Sileverstein put together here. Some see it as an environmental cautionary tale, others an allegory of female oppression at the hands of a selfish male, and still others see it as a beautiful parable of unconditional love. I see it as a simple-yet-profound combination of all those things. But to be honest, I find it a tough book to classify, review, or pigeonhole. Nothing I say can really capture its essence. You have to read it for yourself and draw your own conclusions. In our house, I read this to my daughter probably once a month. (She got it as a present from one of my friends, who says it's one of HER favorite books) She hasn't asked "what does this mean?" just yet. But at age 5, she is just now discovering that boys and girls are really different, and that sometimes those differences are not easy to work through. And I have the feeling that as she goes through the stages of her own growing up and growing away, she will interpret the story differently if she reads it at different points in her life journey. And I probably will, too. Don't let the simplicity of the drawings or the words fool you. This is probably one of the most thought-provoking books a child--or even a midlife adult--could grow up with. It will no doubt be a classic of our time.
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Summary: Simply beautiful
Review: This book is very hard to read without being moved. A more simple message cannot be written. The entire book is encapsulated in the sentance, "The tree loved the boy." The rest of the tale is merely proof. When I read this story to my little girl a year ago, my wife heard it for the first time and she cried. And she didn't even see the pictures. We miss you Uncle Shelby.
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Summary: Give this book with love
Review: An unknown person once said, "Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, it's what you are expecting to give -- which is everything." This is a beautiful story and it's interpretations are boundless. Where one sees unconditional love, another will see wanton selfishness and so on. Some of the reviewers here have found this story disturbing and not one that they would read to their children. Yes, the Boy takes and with nary a thank-you. But the Tree gives and asks nothing in return. And in his taking, the Boy also gives to the Tree. He took Her apples, branches, trunk and stump and gave Her happiness. When you give a gift, do you expect one in return? The giving is a gift in and of itself. And if the recipient takes pleasure, no matter how brief, in your gift, then that is their gift to you.
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