"The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein

The Giving Tree was written by and illustrated by  Shel Silverstein. The Giving Tree is a fable children's story that tells a story about a boy and his tree. The story is all about a little boy who grows up playing a being friends with this tree. The tree and the boy love each other very much and ever day the boy comes to the tree to gather her leaves, climb her trunk, swing from her branches, play with her, eat her apples, and when he was tired he would rest in her shade. They were inseparable and so happy for a long time until the boy grew up and left the tree all alone. The boy would only return to take from the tree that loved him so much. First he took her apples to get money, then he took her branches to build a house, next he took her trunk to make a boat and sail away, the boy came back again but the tree had nothing left to give because she was just a stump. The stump was perfect because the boy was so old and just needed a place to rest and they were finally happy again.

This story starts off very innocent and sweet, but than quickly turns dark as the boy grows into a man and takes everything from his beloved tree friend. Shel Silverstein outline the important concept of being stepped on by the people we love. At least that was something I took away from this story. I think a lot of people and children can relate to either being the one that is always to nice and gets stepped on or being the master-manipulator that always get their way. I really enjoyed Silversteins non sugar-coated take on this ideal. The illustrations in The Giving Tree are very simple. All the illustrations are done in such a way that they are like pencil drawing the most elementary of art and yet their is so much to be said by each picture. One picture in particular that stood out to me in the Giving tree was the image of the stump with the hear and lovers initials still carved in the tree. That one simple images spoke a thousand words. It showed the tree's sacrifice to her boy by being only a simple stump now. She held the boys love history. And she provided a place for him to rest his old tired bones.  

The intended interest level for  The Giving Tree is for Kindergarten-second grade. However I believe that it can be applied to children of all ages as far as being used in literature and as an aid to show that sometimes the people who love you most treat you poorly. The genre of this book is fantasy. Some of the literary devices found in the story The Giving Tree are personification, repetition, and the story is a narrative. I think this story would be an excellent teaching aid for showing students to not manipulate others and not be manipulated, while exposing them to some literary devices. 

Classroom Application:

Critical Thinking Preliminary and Post Reading Questions

• Before teachers begin reading The Giving Tree to students they should begin by showing students the cover of the book a long with a few images to get them thinking about what the story might be about.
• Teachers should ask questions about the chosen images to get the students engaged and problem solving. Some question that could be asked include: What do you think this story is going to be about?, Do you think the boy and the tree are friends?, Why do you think the boy is looking up at the tree?, What do you think the problem might be in this story?, etc.
• After reading The Giving Tree teachers should expand on the reading by asking questions that will get students thinking about the future and what happened in the story. For example: Do you think the boy and the tree will always be friends?, Do you think the boy feels bad for taking so much from his friend?, What person view point was the story told in and give an example to defend your response?, What did you like most about the story, or least? etc. 

Demonstrating Cause and Effect

• Why do you think that the tree gave up everything she had for the boy?
• Do you think the story might have been different if the tree did not give the boy her apples, branches, trunk, etc.?
• Why do you think the boy was never really happy with all the things he took from his friend?
• Why was the tree excited when the boy returned at the end?

Character Analysis

• Describe the tree? 
• Describe the boy? 
• Why do you think the tree and the boy love each other so much?

Personal Connections

• Teachers should ask students what things from the story they can relate to their own lives. For example  do they have a life long friend, do their friends take things from them, do they take things from their friends, do they like to climb tree, do they like to eat apples, etc.

Sequencing Skills

• Teachers can expand on student sequencing skills by asking students to draw several pictures about their favorite parts of the story and then having them put their pictures in order of how they occurred in the story. 

Summarizing the Story

• The teacher can call on students to help summarizing what happened in the story they just read. The teacher should ask each student to add to the summary before summarizing herself/himself about what happened in the story. 

Theme

• The teacher should ask students to write down what they think the purpose or theme of the story was. It could have been treat others as you want to be treated, do not let people use you or take you for granted etc.

Interactive Fun

• I think it would be nice if it is possible for the teacher and a counter part to act out the story of The Giving Tree for the class or create an interactive video that might draw them in and then read the story. I found a movie of the classic story that teachers could show too. And it seems like something students would really enjoy and it would give them another visual element to relate back to the story. Another thing that teachers could use is a song that was made with the book in mind. I included links bellow. Unrelated to children and teaching there has been a horror movie created as an adaptation of the story.  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wGhqtWR4uo
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TZCP6OqRlE
• http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/08acf2556f/the-giving-tree