For some time now I've been mentally pulling together an article on Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. For certain it is one of my favorite books, but the more I read it, not only as an adult, but as an adult reading it to children, I struggle with the premise of the book.
Recently I began wondering if perhaps I was missing something because surely something that starts off as a pure and beautiful friendship can't morph into this relationship where one friend turns up simply to use the other while this sweet, giving tree is apparently completely oblivious. I thought, "I must be missing something here," but I'm thinking...Not so much.
In all this thinking came the idea to read the book to my wide-ranging-in-ages nieces and nephews and get their immediate feedback on the book. I know the way I view this book has certainly changed as I've aged. Bottom line, when you're a kid, you just don't look that deep into these things. (Thank goodness for that in this instance). From here I'll take you to the actual Examiner article where you'll find out just what the kids had to say about The Giving Tree. We've got a nice variety of ages too; 10, 8 (almost 9), 7, and 4.
At the end of this I think the greatest gift this book has to offer is an opportunity to start a conversation with our children about what it means to be a good friend.
The video I'm attaching is one that I am addicted to. I love the song choices this person added to the slide show, are perfection.
No comments:
Post a Comment