The Giving Tree
by Shel Silverstein
The children's book about a tree that gives a boy everything until it is a stump, which adults have argued about for sixty years: a parable of selfless love or a portrait of a one-sided relationship. Both readings are available, and the argument is the value. Read it to a child and then discuss it with an adult.
Read it if…
you want a short text that provokes a real conversation about giving and taking.
Skip it if…
you want a clear moral; it refuses one.
Three things you will actually use
- Giving without limit has a cost; decide if you accept it.
- Taking without gratitude is the boy's failure, not the tree's.
- Parables are mirrors.
Do this first
Read it and decide: is the tree happy? Then ask someone who disagrees.
Our verdict
Provocative at any age.
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