Publisher: HarperCollins PublishersPub.
Date: 1992-10-07
Synopsis:
To say that this particular apple tree is a “giving tree” is an understatement. In Shel Silverstein’s popular tale of few words and simple line drawings, a tree starts out as a leafy playground, shade provider, and apple bearer for a rambunctious little boy. Making the boy happy makes the tree happy, but with time it becomes more challenging for the generous tree to meet his needs. When he asks for money, she suggests that he sell her apples. When he asks for a house, she offers her branches for lumber. When the boy is old, too old and sad to play in the tree, he asks the tree for a boat. She suggests that he cut her down to a stump so he can craft a boat out of her trunk. He unthinkingly does it. At this point in the story, the double-page spread shows a pathetic solitary stump, poignantly cut down to the heart the boy once carved into the tree as a child that said “M.E. + T.” “And then the tree was happy… but not really.” When there’s nothing left of her, the boy returns again as an old man, needing a quiet place to sit and rest. The stump offers up her services, and he sits on it. “And the tree was happy.” While the message of this book is unclear (Take and take and take? Give and give and give? Complete self-sacrifice is good? Complete self-sacrifice is infinitely sad?), Silverstein has perhaps deliberately left the book open to interpretation.
Biography
Not only was Shel Silverstein one of the funniest children’s book authors, he was also one of the most subversive. Through his irresistible rhymes, poems, and drawings, Silverstein made children feel like they were being spoken to as adults; and adults the chance to remember what it felt like to be a child.
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Tags: children book, Shel Silverstein
November 24th, 2008 at 10:48 am
so old stories..
but i love it..
December 1st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
cerita yg bagus,,,
tpi sayang gw bahasa inggrisnya masih 6,,,,