This is a story by Shell Silverstein, and it’s called
The giving tree
Once there was a tree……
And she loved little boy.
And every day the boywould come And he would gather her leaves And make them into crowns and play king of the forest.
He would climb up her trunk And swing from her branches And when he was tired,he would sleep in her shade.
And the boy loved the tree…..Very much..And the tree was happy.
But time went by, And the boy grew older. And the tree was often alone. Then one day the boy came to the tree and the tree said:
–”Come, Boy, come and climb up my trunk and swing from my branches and eat apples and play in my shade and be “happy”
–“I am too big to climb and play”said the boy. “I want to buy thing and have fun. I want some money.
Can you give me some money?”….
eu sunt eu... 
it’s a beautiful story i enjoyed it very much, and i intend to read it in several classes i teach in
I think that tree was just so nice and that is what people should be like and how parents should treat their own kids. That tree was that boys life and the boy should be so thankful for the things the tree gave to him. Also I think the boy should thank the tree for giving his life happiness and the apples for money. That is what I think of that great and wonderful giving tree.
This was the most beautiful story. I read it to my grand daughter all the time. I read it to our whole family at Christmas and everyone was listening so intently. This is one of my favorite books. Thank you Mr. Silverstein.
A friend told me of this story recently. Upon reading it I was humbled. Once again GOD has shown me, one does not need ‘things’ to make them happy. We merely need each other. In there youth the tree and boy are happy just to be in each other’s company and as time goes on the story comes full circle. At least that’s what I have come away with….although I’m not a critic . GOD Bless.
Yup, SHELL SILVERSTEIN does a wonderful job relating the magnanimity of self-less and unconditional love.
most inspiring story.
This book is just one more feather in Mr Silverstein’s hat.I believe all of his writings to be must reads.
Five yoers ago i was an au-pair in London, and every night i have read this story to Joshua (7years old boy). When i was leaving them after one and a half year he wanted to give me the book but i said to him to keep it. Today i was just surfing on net and suddenly i got an idea to have a look on that book here (after five years) Thank You!!!!!thanks for putting it here and sharing the story with others!!!!
i love this story and i had to write a respond to literatue for my english class. it was fun because it was such a great story. love aubrey
I love art, and on day in red bubble I found this painting of “The Giving Tree” story. I was curious to read the story and I started to googled. I want to thank Mr. Silverstein for such a beautiful story. This story reminds me a little bit of my life, I have been told by family members that I give all that I have.. and that people take advantage of me. But in away I just feel so well to help those that need me. The good thing about the boy was that he came back, but only he need it something. I kind of feel that he was taking advantage of the most kind and unself tree. If everything would of been perfect in the boy’s he would never came back, he married and had children he could of kept the tradition. I don’t know.. that way the tree would of always had someone in her life. Beautiful story, I had to translated the story to spanish to my friends. I just wanted to share with them. Thank you for sharing this amazing story with the public. Love Sugey
Beautiful story, thank you so much for sharing this story online. Also, thanks a million to the wonderful Mr. Silverstein for this marvelous story. I ready every day, I feel that I am the tree, but, doesn’t feel that boy took advantaged of the tree. If everything would of been perfect he would of never come back. I translated to Spanish to my friends. I just love reading. I feel that there are people that just givers and takers, which is better? I often time feel used by others, take just come and take what they need. Often time, they don’t come around at all, or don’t even call, can you give to those people? thanks for sharing the story… love sugeyvida
I think that this story is so sad! The tree gives the boy what he wants and he keeps wanting. Then he leaves and the tree is sad. 😦
I agree with you
i used to read this at least once a week in primary school it was my favourite book .
i’m 14 now and the other day i was thinking about this book .
i still love it it’s a beautiful story .
I like this story too 😆
What a beautiful story! I love it! Thank you for putting this on the internet to share this wonderful story by Mr. Silverstein!
That’s the best book EVER!!! COOLNESS!
That’s the best book EVER!!! Thanks for sharing it!
This is a story that will be kept in millions of people’s hearts…
I ABSOLUTELY LUV IT!
This is a story that will be kept in millions of people’s hearts forever…
Hey i have to do an essay on this beautiful heart touching story , but theres a twist on it. i have to find a theory that goes with this poem for instince feminism . what do you think is the real meaning behind this story besides a parental relationship with their children ? if you can give your ideas it would be greatly appreciated 🙂
thank you and god bless
I have not read this story since Kindergarten when my teacher read this aloud to my class. 28 years later, I am researching stories to incorporate into my teaching lesson plans. This story made my eyes tear because it affected me now just as it did when I was a child, it is a timeless, beautiful and sad story all at once. This is why I admire Shel Silverstein’s work because he was able to incorporate the honesty of life that is both beautiful and sad all at once.
Every single time i read this book, I cry.
ilove this video 🙂
it was awsomme aqnd kind of sad
My Mom read this story to me and I feel happy myself, until someone comes and takes my apples, branches and trunk. And then they come and sit on me. Anyway, I enjoyed listening to the story and I would like to hear it again someday.
Being the tree as a mother and the little boy as the mother’s child, I think this story talks about how much love a mother could give for her child. We all know that a mother’s love for her children is genuine, selfless and very unconditional. She’s willing to give everything for her children just to make them happy even if she got nothing left for herself. Because their happiness are hers too. And that’s what make moms the best woman in the world!! Thanks to Mr. Silverstein..
I loved this book as a child and it brings back memories from my dad reading it to me all the time. Im expecting my first in july and i hope he/she will love the book just as much as i did.
Wow! My opinion won’t be a very popular one, I can tell.
I see a story of greed and enabling. I see a lesson that love means giving yourself away, piece by piece, until there’s nothing left….and by reading it to a child, I could be fostering the belief that this is okay – that this is what it means to love.
I was kind of hoping that in the end, the boy would grow up, become a father and realizes the sacrifices Tree made along the way and return to her side,having found a way to give back to her.
Instead, he returns to her and takes the only thing she’s got left – her dignity. He presents his butt to her…and sits.
At some point, a healthy child learns that relationships are a two way street. He offers nothing of himself except for his needs. In addition, when she asks him to keep her company, climb up her trunk and swing from her branches – he’s always got some excuse…but ‘hey – you got some cash?’
The boy appears to love the tree – not for what it is…but for what it could give him. It’s stories like these, in my opinion, that reinforce the sense of entitlement that seems to have become prevalent in today’s children.
Wow. Way to see the glass half empty, MJ. Way to take a beautiful story and slaughter it. Children act how they are raised, not by the reading of one book. This has been my favorite book since I was little. I am a hard working, educated person who takes little from others but enjoys giving. I was raised that way, and yet read and loved this book. Entitlement is taught through years of raising a child to take take take, not in the reading of a great book like the giving tree. In fact, the book could evoke emotions, just like they did in you, and encourage a child not to be that way and to realize at an early age how important it is to be thankful, appreciative, and giving.
wonderful story to be read you will learn many lessons
I think that the boy is a tree murderer. I’m glad he is old I hope he dies. I just wish that dumbass tree still had branches so it could strangle the selfish old bastard
this reminded me of my mom a lot!
thats asome
i agree with MJ. where is the part where the boy grows up? where is the learning from the trees example and he gives of himself unconditionally?
i think the trees lessons are wonderful and beautiful, but enabling. we need as parents to teach our children to use resources and replenish them as well. teach a kid how to sell apples and he lives for the season. teach him how to grow an orchard and he and his family will live proudly and happy.
that is what the story misses! “life lessons”and the boys happiness, he is not happy because he cant function in the real world. what mother allows her son to take advantage and never teachs him to give, or to learn to earn his own way.
My 7-year-old daughter read this story at school. She told me the story when she got home. She looked a little sad when she was telling it. I asked her how the story made her feel. She said it makes her happy because she likes the story, and it makes her sad because the tree misses the boy so much. She makes me feel the same way.
The tree is generous she never stops giving off a part of herself … every time the boy comes… she keeps on giving yet lacks nothing…
the boy every time he comes he is always coming with a need….a taker…
Giver always win… when we give we are liken into a water pipe line it always gives off water but never runs out of water….
But takers is always found in want…
me and my son like this story so much. it was very inspiring. this is our favorite book.
What’s the music in the background?
I don’t know, and i can’t find out because it hasn’t got any lyrics..
this story is a kind of story that relaite any person ……………..
I think this story will have a PART II
Its amazing how such a simple story with so few words can b so touching, Shel Silverstein was one of the few people who made it famous with absolutely no crude humor.
i love this book very much and found it to be one of the greatest books of all time
This was the first book I ever learned to read, thanks to my grandmother. It holds a very dear place in my heart, especially now that she is gone…
And I would just like to say, it was presented beautifully in this video.
I’m a grown man of 25…. but wow I still cry like a child when I read this book. Definitely my favorite book EVER! It has meaning.
Awwh, I love this book. I read it when I was 7 the first time and it still makes me cry. I’m 14 now, I was watching the little slideshow with my dad and it made me wanna shed a tear 🙂
it hurts more when it is only me who gives… especially when i give is nothing but LOVE…
i am very touched.. 🙂
Sometimes I wonder how God feels…
And the Tree Should not be Happy
(The Sick and Suffering Co-Dependant Tree)
By Dee July 1996
So hard to give,
So hard to take,
So hard to see love vacillate,
So hard to still substantiate.
And the tree should not be happy.
So hard to stay,
So hard to go,
So hard to pray- so hard to know.
So hard to live a one-man-show.
And the tree should not be happy.
Friends who starve and friends who morn,
Friends who cry and friends who scorn,
Some so lost and so forelorn.
And the tree should not be happy.
With branches gone,
Dismembered girth.
A tribute to her rite of birth,
Rotting into mother earth
And the tree is happy.
i may love novels, but this is my favorite story ever written. it’s so touching and heartfelt, yet so simple. thankyou for putting up this video. i play it for my daughter every night before bed. she loves it.
It is a great story i read it to my girlfrend every night before she goes to sleep it helps her sleep, its really a beautiful story and oh yah my girlfriend is 17 and iam 18 thanks mr. silverstein
Thanks for blogging this story. I like it very much, very heartwarming & so touching.The tree stands for parents who are always willing to give our needs the best they can & the Boy simply referring to children who keeps on asking & sometimes without showing their sympathy to all the efforts the parents have done. Thanks to the author. God bless!.
We heard this story at our church and the language was appropriate. I listened to the animated version so I could let my 5 year old hear it and the language was terrible. The f— word was used as well as the b—- word.
Oh ! I was about to cry after watching this story. I keep telling people around me about saving trees but they only listens, but still I will keep telling all.
We are alive because of them. Please plant trees and save them. 🙂
Love the Trees
THIS stroy so sad ;'( pity to the tree not happy but say happy if the tree i will use my branches and hit the boy as*s
This story is really good its just so touching.
I use to read this story to the children that I taught in Pre – school.
This story of a tree who gave everything reminds me of God who gives us
everything. It was wonderful to read it again when I am 71 years old and still be touched by the truth of it’s message. May this book always be read by children and adults to remind us not to be selfish but to give unconditional love the way the Giving Tree did. May each of us become a
giving tree to all of the people that come into our lives. Thanks for printing it on your website.
sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ssssssssssssssssssssaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddddddddddddddddddd
this book makes me cry.
I had never heard of that story before, until I was surfing on the web. I am going to remember this and tell it to my grand/children.
i really love this story..its my favorate story of all
This is one of my favorite stories. It has caused much controversy as to its meaning. After many years of thought, I found someone I agree with – Timothy P. Jackson. He interpreted the story as follows, “Is this a sad tale? Well, it is sad in the same way that life is depressing. We are all needy, and, if we are lucky and any good, we grow old using others and getting used up. Tears fall in our lives like leaves from a tree. Our finitude is not something to be regretted or despised, however; it is what makes giving (and receiving) possible. The more you blame the boy, the more you have to fault human existence. The more you blame the tree, the more you have to fault the very idea of parenting. Should the tree’s giving be contingent on the boy’s gratitude? If it were, if fathers and mothers waited on reciprocity before caring for their young, then we would all be doomed.”
Is there any published translation of this wonderful story?
This is a really good story,very touching…the tree really loved the boy but the boy was just using the tree….but the tree didnt mind,she just wanted to make him happy,whenever he came it made her happy!!<3
Shell Silverstein has a lesson for us. Like the boy we exploit nature and nature gives until little is left. Blame our greed and selfishness which makes us feel are entitled to our greed. Do not blame nature for the shortcomings in us!
I enjoyed this story when I was in kindergarten and in first grade, then I kind of forgot about it. I found out it was earth day and saw the cover of this book. I need to buy this book for my younger brother it’s a classic! I think everyone should read this book 🙂