“The Nazis would have loved it,” one man raged, proving that everything up to and including beloved children’s picture books will eventually fall prey to Godwin’s Law - that as an online discussion grows, so does the likelihood that someone or something will be compared to a Nazi.įor those who need a recap: Boy meets adoring, obliging apple tree and eventually, through a combination of utter impotence and blatant manipulation, makes off with her branches, her trunk and, of course, the literal fruits of her labor. “One star or five, there is no middle ground,” declared another. A passionate and very vocal minority of reviewers on sites like Amazon and Goodreads seems to find the story an affront not just to literature but to humanity itself. A 2010 post about “The Giving Tree” in this paper’s MotherLode blog, “Children’s Books You (Might) Hate,” attracted more than 300 comments. He was also an accomplished playwright, including the 1981 hit, ‘The Lady or the Tiger Show.’ The last book to be published before he died in 1999, was Falling Up (1996).I’m not alone. In 1984, Silverstein won a Grammy Award for Best Children’s Album for Where the Sidewalk Ends – ‘recited, sung and shouted’ by the author. in Japan and Korea in the 1950, he learned to play the guitar and to write songs, including ‘A Boy Named Sue’ for Johnny Cash. Shel returned to humour that same year with A Giraffe and a Half. His first collection of poems and drawings, Where the Sidewalk Ends, appeared in 1974, and his second, A Light in the Attic, in 1981. The first of those, The Giving Tree, is a moving story about the love of a tree for a boy it took four years before Harper Children’s books decided to publish it. Shel Silverstein’s very first children’s book Lafcadio, the Lion Who Shot Back was published in 1963, and followed the next year by two other books. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another’s capacity to love in return.

This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave. So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.Įvery day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk … and the tree was happy.

Once there was a little tree … and she loved a little boy. The Giving Tree is a classic and moving story by Shel Silverstein.

The giving tree picture