Childrens Literature and Literacy

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==== Book Title ====

The Giving Tree

==== Author ====

Shel Silverstein

==== Summary ==== 

The story started off with a young boy that had a favorite tree. He constantly was hanging out with the tree and playing with it. As the boy grew up, he started to stop visiting the tree and the tree often felt lonely. Then one day the "boy" went to go visit the tree and the tree asked him to play with him but he said he was too old to play. The tree then gave the "boy" its apples so that he could sell them to make money for himself, which made the tree happy again. Then the "boy" left again for a long time and the tree grew sad again. Then he visited again as a man and told the tree he still couldn't play and all he wanted was a house, so the tree let the man cut its branches to help build his house. Then he left again for a while and returned as an old man. He said that he wanted a boat so it told him to take its trunk to build his boat. Later the man came back as an even older man and the tree had nothing left to give. The man said he didn't want anything but a place to sit and the tree was happy to let him sit on the last part left of it.

==== Analyze Author Craft ====

The story escalated as it went on. It basically showed the relationship of the tree and the boy as the boy grew up. The visuals were kind of plain but showed the passing over time of the boy turning into a man. The book wasn't very colorful, but sent a good message. I believe the fact that the book was black and white and the cover showed color sent a big message. 

==== Favorite Part ====

My favorite part was when the boy came back only to sit on the tree like he did as a boy. He was so caught up in the fact of taking everything from the tree and leaving it, that he never realized he wasn't giving the tree anything in return to make it happy. He was taking everything and giving nothing. Therefore, it made me happy to see the boy as a man coming back only to hangout with the tree instead of taking from the tree. 

==== Recommendation ====
I would definitely recommend this book to any age. It is a popular book  for a reason. It shows friendship and sharing. It shows how some people will give so much to a certain person and never ask for anything in return. It shows how caring some people can be.