Existing comment:
Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree (1964)
The Giving Tree's conceit is that a boy and a tree can talk to each other. In School Library Journal's 2012 listing of the "Top 100 Picture Books," Silverstein's book is ranked number eighty-five. The Journal called it "one of the most divisive in children's literature. . . . You are either a Giving Tree fan or you loathe and abhor it." Why so much controversy? The boy asks many things of the tree until it has nothing else to give. At the end of every request is the sentence, "And the tree was happy." When the tree is left with nothing more than a stump, the book concludes with the same sentence. Is this a story of unconditional love or unbridled selfishness? Only the reader can decide. |