![]() ![]() The lesson for children here is a murky one. Maybe he too would have benefited from the word ‘no’? At one point, he shows up asking for wood to make a boat to literally sail away from everyone. There are certainly hints that things aren’t going as planned for him. We don’t see his life outside of his visits with the tree, but each time he returns there are few, if any, indications of happiness. The boy doesn’t appear to fare much better. As the boy grows into a man, however, he makes increasingly painful demands of the tree until it is rendered a sad stump with a scar-like carving at its base placed there by the child. At the very start of the book their love appears reciprocal. If you aren’t familiar, it’s a story about a beautiful apple tree who loves a little boy. To this day, if I see its bright green cover in a library, even at a distance, I will instantly get a pit in my stomach. One such book is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. Books have always been a big part of my life and there are many from childhood that stand out, mostly for good reasons, but a few because they stuck with me in a painful way. ![]()
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