Favorite book of mine, and has been for a long time, is easily The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.As an educator, I love the ability to compare the selflessness of the tree to selfishness of the boy. As a mother, I also love the ability to compare the tree to parenting and the boy to the child. After giving your everything they'll always come back to take in some quality time.
I find that when teaching in a classroom, at times sharing great lesson plans and/or bulletin board ideas is extremely helpful. This is a site that offers lesson plans and a bulletin board for using with The Giving Tree. I did something like this bulletin board but instead of using leaves around the tree we made our book projects into the shapes of leaves and posted them as the leaves. It was quite beautiful and our class had LOADS of compliments!
I fell in love with this book the first time it was read to me, and my feelings have never changed. As I child, I knew it was a sad book, but I didn't know why. Now that I am an adult, I can understand the cost of unconditional love and I know why the tree was sad.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting lesson in this book and a powerful message. For me, the key point is that in the end, the love the tree had for the boy was vindicated by his return- older, wiser, and more appreciative.
My mother bought me this book when I was young because she thought it had a poignant lesson to teach. My mother tells me that the tree is every mother, and that the sadness felt by the tree is the sadness every mother feels when her child grows up and grows apart. She says every mother's hope is that her child will return someday, wanting nothing more than to to sit together in silence and to be happy.
Anyone who has ever loved someone enough to let them go will understand the painful choice highlighted in The Giving Tree.
Love, Love, Love this book! I can understand why you chose it...the meaning behind it is amazing!
Great Choice!