Module One...The Giving Tree.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Illustrated by Shel Silverstein

Silverstein, S.  (1964).  The Giving Tree. New York:  Harper & Row.

Summary:

The Giving Tree follows a tree and the boy she loves.  The book begins with the young boy and the interaction between the tree and the boy.  He climbs the tree, eats its apples, uses his leaves to make things with, and sleeps under the tree.  All of this makes the tree happy.  Happy to give everything to the boy.  But grows up and only comes to see the tree when he needs something.  The tree gives the boy want he thinks he needs to be happy:  she gives her apples to sell, her limbs to build a house, her trunk to build a boat with.  It isn't until the end of the boy's life that he comes to appreciate  the tree like he did when he was a child.

Impressions:

There are many ways this book could be broken down.  Obviously the book can be seen as a story of the unconditional and unselfish love between a mother (or father) and her (or his) child.  The parent give everything they had to ensure the child is happy, even if it is not the best thing for the child.  That was my first thought after reading this book.  After thinking about the book for a while, I drew the connection between the book and human's relationships with the earth.  We take and take but, until recently, we didn't really give back.  In some cases, it is too late to give back and all we have are a bunch of stumps to rest upon.  We say we love the earth, just as the boy loves the tree, but we only love it for what it can give us.  We show it no love in return.

Reviews:

Bird, Elizabeth.  "Top 100 Picture Books #85: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein."  School Library Journal, May 18, 2012.

Somebody’s moving up in the world.  At last count Silverstein’s most divisive book was low at #93.  Now it has climbed the ranks to a respectable #85. And there we have it.  One of the most divisive books in children’s literature.  To my mind, you are either a Giving Tree fan or you loathe and abhor it.  My husband is a fan.  In fact, if you get him at a party he will explain at length how subversive the title is, and how Silverstein is playing with the reader and isn’t serious about the tree’s “giving”.  Others prefer to take the book at face value, finding it to be a tale of self-sacrifice and parenthood.  The story, just in case you are unfamiliar with it, is about a tree and the boy it loves.  The boy takes apples, wood, and eventually everything from the tree itself, and it is happy with the process.

It is also notable for this infamous author photo of Mr. Silverstein on the back.  Those of you who read the third Diary of a Wimpy Kid book will remember the passage where Greg’s dad kept him from getting out of bed at night by threatening him with the back of The Giving Tree, telling him Shel Silverstein would get him if he left his room. 

Cole, William.  "About Alice, a Rabbit and a Tree."  New York Times, September 9, 1973, 

"Look Shel," I said, "the trouble with this ‘Giving Tree' of yours is that it falls between two stools; it's not a kid's book -- too sad, and it isn't for adults -- too simple." This was in 1963; I was working at Simon & Schuster; Shel was Shel Silverstein, and the manuscript was "The Giving Tree," which Harper & Row subsequently published, and which has sold over 150,000 copies. Kurt Vonnegut must have some kind of philosophical saying for the way I feel now.

Shel Silverstein first came to prominence as Playboy's roving cartoonist. He published a number of children's books and the outrageous "Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book," and just a few years ago turned up as a songwriter with Johnny Cash's hit "A Boy Named Sue." Even more recently, he had a hit, singing in his own raucous voice his "Freakin' at the Freaker's Ball," and we'll soon see in November a large collection of his poems for children, "Where the Sidewalk Ends."

When I called this paper and said I'd like to do a piece about "The Giving Tree," they said, fine, but would I also look into two other surprise sellers, "The Velveteen Rabbit," and "Go Ask Alice"? Very good.

"The Giving Tree" begins, "Once there was a tree..." (Dots are Shel's) and goes on for 50 more pages with a simple tale, illustrated in graceful cartoon style by the author. There was a boy who played in the tree, gathering its leaves, swinging on its branches, eating its apples. When the boy grew older he lay in the shade of the tree with a girl and carved initials in a heart. Yet older, a young man, he took the tree's branches to build a house. As an old man he needed a boat to get away from it all, so the tree said cut me down and make a boat. So we have a stump. Along comes the boy, now an old, old man, and the ex-tree says, "Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest." And the tree was happy.

My interpretation is that that was one dum-dum of a tree, giving everything and getting nothing in return. Once beyond boyhood, the boy is unpleasant and ungrateful, and I wouldn't give him the time of day, much less my bole. But there's a public out there who think otherwise, and Harper & Row expects to sell another 100,000 this year. And this month they are bringing out a version in French, "L'arbre au Grand Coeur." I called Ursula Nordstrom, who has been Shel's editor at Harper & Row, and asked how this all came about. Ursula, noted for finding and encouraging such artists as Maurice Sendak and Tomi Ungerer, had long ago noted Shel's "simple and direct drawings" in Playboy, and tried to get him to do a book. Shel, the hardest man in the world to pin down, didn't react until Tomi Ungerer said, "Go see Ursula." There was tremendous disagreement in the office over "The Giving Tree," one editor saying "That tree is sick! Neurotic!" They did a small first printing in 1964. Nothing much happened. Then, as Ursula says, "The body twitched". Apparently, it had been taken up by the great word-of-mouth underground with an assist from the pulpits; where it was hailed as a parable on the joys of giving, and from Shel's disk-jockey friends, a strange pairing. The book, to me, is simply a backup of "more blessed to give than to receive." My wife's interpretation, not surprisingly, is that the tree represents a mother, giving and receiving with not expectation of return. Whatever it is, it touches a sensitive point clearly and swiftly, as do other recent phenomena of Segals and seagulls.

Library use:

This book could be used in a display celebrating American authors or in a display celebrating environmentally minded authors.  Recreating the tree in this book on a felt board would be a great way to use this book during story time.  The felt tree could have removable leaves, limbs and apples to represent the stages in which the boy cuts it down.