Tomi Ungerer encouraged Silverstein to approach Ursula Nordstrom, who was a publisher with Harper & Row. An editor at Simon & Schuster rejected the book's manuscript because he felt that it was 'too sad' for children and 'too simple' for adults. Silverstein had difficulty finding a publisher for The Giving Tree.

This book has been described as 'one of the most divisive books in children's literature' the controversy stems from whether the relationship between the main characters (a boy and the eponymous tree) should be interpreted as positive (i.e., the tree gives the boy selfless love) or negative (i.e., the boy and the tree have an abusive relationship). First published in 1964 by Harper & Row, it has become one of Silverstein's best-known titles, and it has been translated into numerous languages. And we should give what we can because it makes us happy to do so.The Giving Tree is an American children's picture book written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. What I take from The Giving Tree, and what I try to subtly convey to my kids when I read it, is that giving is good and important. I won’t give away the ending but it’s poignant and tender and the more I think about it, really sad for a children’s story. Although the tree willingly gives to the boy, he never seems to be fulfilled and she grows increasingly sadder. The tree loves the little boy and gives everything she can. The story is about a little boy who loves a tree and as he grows he asks for more and more things from the tree. But I haven’t yet and this makes writing a review a little more difficult than usual. I realize that in this Internet age with sites like Wikipedia and Amazon and any number of blogs and review sites, I *should* be able to figure it out. So I’ve now read it some 60-70 times, but here’s the strange thing: I’m still not quite sure what the moral of the story is.

I based my decision to buy it on two things-I had a notion that it was an important book in the canon of children’s literature and I really liked the cover: a simple line drawing of a boy and a tree on a bright green background.įast forward a few months and it has become one of the three or four books that *must* be read before bedtime. I’d seen it before but never read it and thought it might be nice to read to my children. Not so long ago, I bought The Giving Tree on a visit to a great NY bookstore.

The giving tree picture