The Giving Tree - Written by Shel Silver Stein

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“The giving tree” is a picture book which talks about a relationship between a boy and an apple tree. I think the story is very interesting because it just like talking about something happened to ourselves. In the book, when the boy was young, he always went to accompany the apple tree, and he went there just simply for fun. When he got older and older, the times he came were decrease, but every time he came he would ask the apple tree for help. The tree always felt happy although he had to sacrifice himself to help the boy.
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As for me, that is what people did. Before we experienced many problems, we are all pure, and we won’t like to pursue fame and gain. But when we grow up, human desires push us to pursue many different things, like wealth, reputation, love, and so on. We have more and more desires, but less and less happiness because we are unsatisfied if we can’t get what we want, and we will also feel tired even if we get it. In the procedures that we pursue different things, we may ignore something which is more important than what we are pursuing. It may be parent’s love, family, money, or time, and it depends on different people, but I think most people will ignore the love in their lives. Since they are so tired, and they don’t have enough time and energy to feel others’ love to them.
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I think it is very lamentable. People seem only realized the importance of love and companionship when they get hurts or feel frustrated. Just like the end of the book, when the boy became an old man, he went back to the apple tree and said that he just want to take a rest. However, although the apple tree lost everything to help the boy, it didn’t blame the boy. In contrast, the tree was happy that he could finally be a chair so that the man could sit on it. It is toughing to me, and as for me, the tree just like the people who love you, and they won’t charge you anything for their love. I also think it is a very good topic which we can teach children – no matter what happened, remember that always take care about the people around you.


In addition, I like the colors using of the book very much. It only uses green color to be the cover, and there is no other color in the content except white background and black illustrations. The book looks simple, but the content is very meaningful.