Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Is self-sacrifice for someone you love beautiful? Yes. Is the tree acting like a parent? Yes. Well, then...bittersweet sacrifice...great moral..."the end," right? Uh, no...the boy in the story is cruel, selfish, and indifferent. He grows up to be a cruel, selfish, and indifferent man. Along the way, he killed the tree. If the book made any sense at all, the last page would have the boy hugging the stump and saying, "You were always my best friend," or "Thank you, tree," but he doesn't. Now, would you take and take and take from a friendly tree, up to and including killing it, and never give anything back? I wouldn't. So the book makes no sense, as would a story of a boy and his friendly dog, that we could call, "The Giving Dog," and the dog does everything for him that he can. The dog fetches things, pulls a sled, and then the boy hacks the dog's arms and legs off and barbeques them, kills the dog to sell its coat, and makes a keychain out of the dogs' bones. Oh, bittersweet dog...gave so much...how beautiful. What about this horrible kid? What if it was called "The Giving Aunt," and the boy takes everything she has, makes her sell her house, empties her bank account, leaves her to die and then sits on her tombstone? Oh, bittersweet aunt...gave so much...how beautiful. If this was Sesame Street, it'd be like Bert demanding Ernie's rubber duckie, his bed, and all his food including his last cookie, and then leaving Ernie to die in the gutter without so much as a "Thanks, Ernie." The book still could have made sense, with all that the tree did, if the rotten boy would have shown some appreciation, or some remorse, but he didn't, so it's a creepy story of abuse, of watching a nice tree get used, abused, killed and forgotten. This book makes for nice fodder for adults, for chitchat, but it's not a children's book-even though it does have cute drawings, simple words, and is marketed as such. Why consider it a children's book? Because some adults go online and argue for its poetic tragedy? No, never mind the banter and lobbying of adults-just pay attention to the honest warnings from parents who have found out what I'm telling you now: While some kids may enjoy it, others, that being, the *sensitive* kids, will be hurt by it. So, what am I saying? Protect your kids from all sad stories? No. Just keep in mind that although the tree made a beautiful sacrifice, the boy never cared, and the boy killed the tree. It's like watching somebody kill a puppy for no reason. I believe the author gave this book a weird ending on purpose, so that people would debate the book itself, and generate more fame and sales for it via curiosity. Sometimes people do that. Trash pop icon Madonna made a career of getting people to speculate on her exploits, rather than her talent. I'm not saying the author of this book has no talent, but insofar as this book is concerned, it's a trick. It's like an across-the-board endorsement of spanking children under all circumstances, in that most children will bounce back from it, but others will be damaged. The majority opinion rules, but that doesn't mean it is necessarily correct. The two best contrary opinions I've read about it here come from children. One, from a twelve year-old boy: "That tree is an idiot and the boy isn't helping the situation." The other came from a five year-old girl, told to her mother after the girl answered as to why she didn't want to be read the book again: "He cut down the tree." Exactly! The boy killed the friendly tree, and never showed any remorse or sadness. The book should be called "The Giving Tree and the Heartless Killer." This book is ugly. I can't imagine Jim Henson or Charles Schulz writing something such as this. Keep in mind that there is deep sadness in Peanuts, but it isn't ugly. If the tree got struck by lightning or mowed down by a bulldozer, that would still be sad, but the fact that the kid doesn't care makes it a tale of abuse. There is no redemption, and the cruelty is spectacular. Most people (and most of them adults) are only getting the surface. The wiser and more sensitive a child is, the more he or she will be hurt by this book. The majority of the glowing reviews written by adults be damned, this book is a sadistic tragedy, presented as a series of macabre greeting cards. I can only hope that well-meaning, yet ignorant adults will not force this material on children with the bitter argument that it is either great "art," or a stiff "lesson." Interesting for adults, but it's not for children, as you CANNOT give it to all children without hurting some of them, and, hurt some of them you will, for this has more in common with Edgar Allan Poe than it does with anything else. A clever career move for the author, but unless you are 100% sure of how a child will react to this, keep it away from them. Adults who think this is "deep" and that they are doing children a favor by bringing them this book are making a mistake. The sacrifice of the tree is beautiful, but it can't be removed from the other messages, which are: "Don't love; don't trust; give and you will be destroyed; take and you will survive; greed pays back-kindness never does; let others destroy you; kill the one who loves you." Poison! Discuss it all you like with other adults, but keep it away from children, for it will certainly damage sensitive children. Poison! Poison! Poison!