The giving tree

The giving tree is a wonderful and famous book written in 1964 by the successful writer, shei silverstein. It is in the category of children books, contains pictures used as illustration to convey sensibly versatile messages embedded in the book. Although, it is meant to be a book for grade 2-3 children, but the message it carries goes well with all age groups.

Around year 2001 only, over five million copies of this book were sold around the world. Demand for this book keeps increasing and it has not ceased to continue to gain readers interest till date.

Reason behind high demand of this book is found in its broad usefulness and its suitability for multiple interpretation. The giving tree has been used in the academic area to teach children moral education about importance of having contentment, and neediness to reciprocating love giving by others.

In the same veins, the book is used as educational material to teach children environmental ethics. “Do not cut down the tree that has been serving you for photosynthesis purposes, and afforestation against depletion of ozone layer” says by the teachers to the pupils. Those illustrative pictures make it easy to be understood.

Undoubtedly, this book is a great source of learning for pupils under the subjects of environmental ethics. Its usability in this area makes it an essential material to the teachers looking for a good book within the scope of environmental science. And it is as well a good buy for parents concerning about teaching their children in preschool ages basic understanding in environmental ethics.

More also, this book is used by educators teaching relationship management and the illustrations in it serves as education to the people willing to strengthen their sense of interpersonal relationship. It is clearly shown in this book how the second person’s love will eventually die off if he is the only one continues to give.

Love is like a two edged sword, both sides need to continue to be sharpened for it to continue to be a sword. For a relationship to remains strong and linger, both friends need to continue bringing something to the table as to fuel the continuity of their togetherness.



Unfortunately, the boy showed childish attitude that led to total ruin of the relationship between him and the tree. The maturity and her selfless love to the child was not reciprocated. Out of her generosity and endless giving, she gave all herself out to the boy until exhausted. After this, the boy had nothing to fall back on and saw no perfect substitute for his exhausted friend.

The best way to enjoy and reap more from this book is to get a copy. Adding this book to the library is a sensible decision that you will continue seeing its advantages for decades to come. It is a 55years old book that continues to gain higher demand year by year. As aforementioned, it recorded over five million copies of sales in 2001.

Fast-forward to 2011, its demand jumped and recorded over eight million copies of sales. The reason for this increased demand is due to the value received from the book, and its affordability (very cheap price).

This can be a children book but its flexibility for multiple interpretation makes it suitable for adult reading. In fact, the book is used in Christianity to show example of unconditional love giving by Jesus Christ, and how Christians should foster similar attitude in the society.

Similarly, if the book is read from cover to cover, one would discover that the illustrations in the book explain such unconditional love which a mother has for her child. You would come to a realisation of how great was the sacrifices his mother had given to him as a child. The tree would represent a mother while the boy would represent her child.

You would be thinking whether Celine Dion read the book before she composed her popular song called Goodbye(the saddest word).

The information above are just a tip of the iceberg comparing to the value that will be derived if you buy the book and read it from cover to cover. This is a 64 pages book that only requires a little time to read. But the strong emotion which a reader will be left with after reading the book is unforgettable one.