The Giving Tree

Silverstein, Shel
Harper Collins Publishers, 1964
Picture Book
1st and up



The Giving Tree is written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. This book is the story of a young boy who once had a favorite tree. The tree absolutely loved this little boy and whenever the tree saw the little boy she would become so happy. The little boy loved to play in her leaves, swing on her branches and eat her apples. He would play hide-and-go-seek with the tree, and he would sleep in her shade. The boy gave all of his love to the tree and she appreciated it so much.
As the boy started to grow up, he began taking advantage of the tree. The tree felt very lonely when the boy was not around. One day the boy began coming to the tree and asking for favors. First, the boy asked for money. The tree said to take her apples and the sell them, and so he did. Then the boy came back again and said that he needed a house to keep warm and so the boy cut off all of her branches. Then the boy came back and said he wanted a boat, so the tree told him to cut her trunk and he did. The tree had given everything she had to give to the boy and she had nothing left to give and was very sad. The boy came back once more, but he was very old. The tree said “I have nothing left to give you, you have taken everything.” The boy said that he needed nothing except for a quiet place to sit and rest, so the boy sat and rested on the old stump, and the tree was happy.

I LOVE this book. This book is about a boy and his relationship with a friend, who happened to be a tree. The tree had the gift of giving, and gave everything she possibly could to make the boy happy. The boy took advantage of her for many years but when he got older he realized that he didn’t need any of the material things so he sat with his old friend, and that was the best gift he could have given back to the tree. The pictures in the book were very simple, along with the word choice, but the message at the end of the book was overpowering so it balanced out very well.

Classroom: I would use this book in the classroom for a lesson on respect and giving. You could create your own classroom giving tree and have students write on apple cutouts gifts that they can give such as friendship, loyalty, and trust. This would be great on talking about emotions and building healthy relationships as well.