The Giving Tree Reviews

"Is this a sad tale? Well, it is sad in the same way that life is sad. We are all needy, and, if we are lucky and any good, we grow old using others and getting used up. Tears fall in our lives like leaves from a tree. Our finitude is not something to be regretted or despised, however; it is what makes giving (and receiving) possible. The more you blame the boy, the more you have to fault human existence. The more you blame the tree, the more you have to fault the very idea of parenting. Should the tree's giving be contingent on the boy's gratitude? If it were, if fathers and mothers waited on reciprocity before caring for their young, then we would all be doomed." (Timothy Jackson, a professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University)

Just reading the description brings me back to the tears I cried long ago when I read this. Such selflessness of unconditional love. A great and bountiful tree gives all that it has out of its love for the child. Her leaves, apples, her branches, trunk, everything for his happiness. The relationship between the tree and the boy is very much similiar to that between a mother and her child; despite getting nothing in return for a long time, the tree puts the boy's needs foremost. In the twilight of his death, the boy returns, when he is old and gray, when he is weary and his life is lived; he returns to the tree. Though when he does, she is as he left her, a stump, a shadow of what she was. She seems to be the saddest in that she has nothing more to offer him, but all he seeks is a place to rest, and she offers what remains of her, her stump, for him to rest upon. This book came under much controversy, but I have to say with misty eyes that this is a heartachingly beautiful book.

so adorable and inspiring, a must-read for all kids.